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Venezuela's Currency Controls Pushed $161 Billion Out of the Country Under Chavismo

Economist Miguel Ángel Santos calculates $161.3 billion fled Venezuela during its currency control regime under Chávez & Maduro — arguing the system existed to decide who got rich fleeing, not to prevent flight

By Sociedad Media
Venezuela's Currency Controls Pushed $161 Billion Out of the Country Under Chavismo
Stacks of Venezuelan bolivares. Credit: Carlos Becerra/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Venezuelan economist Miguel Ángel Santos estimates that capital flight during the strict currency control regime Chavismo imposed between 2003 and 2016 reached $161.3 billion — a figure he says is equivalent to fifteen years of food imports at Venezuela’s peak import year.

Santos, dean of Tecnológico de Monterrey’s School of Government and a Harvard Kennedy School affiliate, reached the number after reviewing recently published Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) data.

His conclusion is pointed: “It’s clear the currency control, lifted following oil sanctions, wasn’t created to stop capital flight, but to decide who got to flee with it and get rich.”