Dollar shortage: Toyota halts production in Venezuela

CARACAS: Toyota is halting production at its only assembly plant in Venezuela because the world’s largest automaker lacks the hard currency to import parts due to government controls, a factory official said. The temporary shutdown of the Japanese car maker’s operations in the western city of Cumana is to commence February 13 and last at least six weeks. “We are going to close initially for 45 days in hopes that we will be granted the foreign currency needed to import auto parts,” a source in Toyota Venezuela’s management said. The plant produced nearly 9,500 vehicles in 2013. Venezuela is only providing dollars at the official rate of 6.3 bolivars to the dollar to importers of designated priority goods. Many companies have complained Caracas is not providing them with enough hard currency. The currency controls have led to shortages of a wide range of basic necessities and fueled an inflation rate that reached 56.2% last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2014.

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