Venezuela’s currency – the Bolivar - has been sinking at a faster rate of late. Trading on the parallel rate at about 4,000 Bolivares to the dollar a little more than two months ago, the currency last week was quoted at 5,750, about a third of its official value of B2,150 to the dollar.

For a government swimming in dollar liquidity as a result of high oil prices the obvious answer is to make more foreign currency available to importers, but President Hugo Chávez has been moving in exactly in the opposite direction, imposing fresh restrictions on importers. Confusingly, this seems to contradict the logic of other monetary policies designed to mop up local currency liquidity, such as the issues of dollar-linked bonds which investors can buy in Bolivares at the official rate.