Venezuela black market rate weakens below 250 bolivars per dollar

[Zorro]

OPEC member Venezuela's black market exchange rate weakened below 250 bolivars per dollar on Wednesday, according to a widely referenced website, as a new foreign exchange platform struggles to satiate avid demand for dollars.

The bolivar has weakened 32 percent since the start of the year to fall to 255.43, according to website DolarToday, which says it publishes the black market rate based mostly on currency trades along the Colombian border.

Venezuela last month opened a "free-floating" currency exchange mechanism known as Simadi which currently sells dollars for 177.7 bolivars, in a bid to drive down the black market and ease shortages of goods including toilet paper, milk, and medicines.

Simadi is the weakest of a three-tiered exchange control system that also sells dollars at a preferential rate of 6.3 bolivars for imports of food and medicine and a complementary rate of around 12 bolivars for other goods.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-black-market-rate-weakens-210432064.html

[Bacchus4.0]

1. the free floating rate is not working either I see nt