Venezuela: Home of the $35,000 fast-food meal?
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said inflation in crisis-stricken Venezuela could top 1 million percent by year's end as the country’s economic turmoil deepens.
One million percent inflation would mean skyrocketing costs for necessary goods at a time when people in the country are lacking even the most basic care as the country’s socialist economy collapses.
According to Expatistan, the price of a combo meal in fast-food restaurant in Caracas is $3.51. If a fast food meal were to experience the projected inflation, it would skyrocket its cost to $35,100.
What would it look like if this level of inflation would hit the U.S.?
In the U.S., the average cost of a fast food meal is $7; with 1 million percent inflation this would soar to $70,000.
A dozen eggs from Amazon Fresh delivered to a NYC address can be purchased for about $2.99; but that price would soar to $29,000 if the same level of inflation that the IMF is projecting for Venezuela were to hit the U.S.
Stateside, consumers have been complaining about the high gas prices. On Wednesday, the national average for gas prices was $2.846 a gallon. With one million percent inflation the price would soar to $28,460 per gallon, making filling up a gas tank very expensive.
Venezuela's economic turmoil compares to Germany's after World War I and Zimbabwe's at the beginning of the last decade, said Alejandro Werner, head of the IMF's Western Hemisphere department.
"The collapse in economic activity, hyperinflation, and increasing deterioration ... will lead to intensifying spillover effects on neighboring countries," Werner wrote in a blog post.
The IMF estimates Venezuela's economy could contract 18 percent this year, up from the 15 percent drop it predicted in April. This will be the third consecutive year of double-digit decline, the IMF said.
Werner said the projections are based on calculations prepared by IMF staff, but he warned that they have a degree of uncertainty greater than in other countries.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Please note this article has been corrected to reflect 1 million percent inflation is equal to prices that are 10,000 times higher.