In a country blessed with enough crude to make it OPEC’s sixth-largest producer, the store has no milk, no chicken, no cooking oil and no flour. A currency black market is thriving. Inflation hit an annualized 29 percent in April and rents in upper-middle-class neighborhoods of Caracas have soared to New York levels — as much as $4,000 a month for a two-bedroom flat. Food producers say the seizures by the National Land Institute have made shortages worse. “There’s a flight of investment from food production,” Petrodollar billions can buy a lot of things. As Chavez has found, well-stocked grocery shelves aren’t always among them.
