New national currency will be tied to petro: Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro

Venezuela President

To counter the soaring inflation which is predicted to mount up to a million percent this year, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has planned to roll out a new currency that will erase some zeros to make life easy. Moreover, it will be tied to the country's controversial 'petro' token, which was launched in February.

According to a report by Coindesk, the new Bolivar was proposed to see a reduction of three zeros. But later it was announced by Maduro that deleting three zeros will not be sufficient enough so they plan to chop five instead of three. The new bolívar Soberano (or sovereign bolivar) will penetrate in the country around next month said Maduro in an announcement on Wednesday.

Talking more about the subject, the he said: "The economic reconversion will start on August 20 definitively with the circulation and issuance of the new Sovereign Bolivar, the new monetary cone [sic] that is going to have a new method of anchoring the Petro. We have the correct vision of what the economic future in Venezuela should be, above all, we will achieve it."

The opposition-led Congress party has declared petro as "illegal" much before the launch in February. Maduro has endeavored in its use across the society. The President had appealed to the banks in the country for mining and making use of the Petro. He also instructed several state-owned companies to convert a percentage of their sales and purchases into the token, among other initiatives. Maduro also said that the new cryptocurrency Petro is issued to overcome the financial crisis imposed by the US. Following which president Trump had signed an executive order imposing new sanctions against Venezuela over the issue Petro.