NPR This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Jerry Woods.

And I'm Whelan Wong.

Venezuela's economy has been in free fall for over a decade.

It's an oil-rich country that struggles to drill oil.

Its currency, the Bolivar, has suffered brain-bending levels of hyper-inflation.

We're talking 65,000 percent in 2018.

Bolivarice just crumbling in your hands.

The seeds of the trouble began under President Ugo Chavez

around 25 years ago.

He was a leftist populist who made decisions that had some benefits like boosting education and reducing poverty.

But some of his actions slowly chipped away at the country's prosperity. He seized control of farms and oil

companies assets. He weakened Congress and suppressed his opponents. Towards the end of his

rule the economy faulted and it then nose-dived under his

successor Nicolas Maduro who doubled down as a kind of hapless authoritarian.

US sanctions haven't helped the economy either.

The South American country has had one of the largest outflows of refugees in modern history.

More than 7 million people left the country in the last decade.

That's about one in five Venezuelans.

Back in 2019, we at the indicator started calling into one Venezuelan economist, Gabriela Sade.

She told us stories about what it was like in the capital of Caracas,

which were often grim. You go to the streets and people in Venezuela, they are very skinny.

Yeah, it's they are very skinny.

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