Venezuela’s central bank sells dollars at a record pace and the bolívar keeps sliding: why, and for how long
The Central Bank is selling dollars like never before — US$7.897 billion in seven months, nearly triple 2025 — and still the bolívar keeps sliding. The answer is not how much it sells, but where that money comes from, and where it does not.
The Central Bank of Venezuela is holding the official rate by selling dollars as never before: between January and July it placed some US$7.897 billion in the market, 178% more than the same span of 2025 — nearly triple, according to Ecoanalítica. And still, the currency keeps giving ground.
The paradox is not accounting but the source of the money. Most oil income — the natural source to defend the currency — does not pass through the Central Bank: it enters a U.S. Treasury custody account and is released month by month. The defense of the currency thus rests on reserves, not on oil flow. Hence the only question that matters: how long it lasts.
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