- Title: BOLIVIA: TONNES OF EXCESS BANKNOTES INCINERATED AS A FAREWELL TO HYPERINFLATION.
- Date: 12th April 1988
- Summary: 1. GV closed gates at centre where money was burnt. 0.04 2. SVS AND CUS money being burned in furnaces with armed guards watching. (6 SHOTS) 0.33 3. CU FAN AND CU sacks of money waiting to be burned and burning notes in furnace. (2 SHOTS) 0.46 4. SV PAN Bolivian street market. 0.50 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 27th April 1988 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VINTO, BOLIVIA
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA6Z3T8HJBDC1WBGTR91F6BAS3K
- Story Text: VINTO, BOLIVIA
Tonnes of Bolivian banknotes were burnt on Saturday as a farewell to the Country's hyperinflation. The money, once valved at 200,000 million U.S. dollars was printed when inflation was raging at an annual rate of 24,000 per cent. One U.S. dollar was worth three million Bolivian pesos. But since September 1985, the government's economic policies have reduced inflation to double figures - around 10 per cent. The currency, now re-named the Boliviano, has a current exchange rate of about 2.2 to one U.S. dollar. Armed soldiers guarded the incineration of banknotes carried to the site by a 35-wagon train. The packages of notes were burnt in the ovens of the highest industrial centre in the world at Vinto - 3,700 metres up in the Andes mountains. National Foundry President Gonzalo Martinez said the incineration operation expected to last a month was ordered by the Central Bank. The government ended hyperinflation and Bolivia's economic decline by cutting its spending, setting a market rate for the currency and freezing state sector wages. Unions have recently held strikes, protesting against the government's economic policy. The country's economy suffered badly when tin prices collapsed and oil prices fell. Bolivia owes 4.1 billion U.S. dollars to foreign banks and financial institutions.
<strong>Source: REUTERS - EDGAR RADA</strong> - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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