Venezuelans cried at the sight of fully-stocked supermarket shelves in Colombia


Pregnant women, children and even elderly Venezuelans crossed into Colombia on Sunday after the border was temporarily reopened, allowing them to buy basic foods and toiletries -- rare commodities in their home country.


Tearful Venezuelans had gone weeks without basic food items like milk, flour and toilet paper. It's a sad but common part of daily life today in crisis-ridden Venezuela, a country that has the world's largest proven reserves of oil. Colombian officials estimate that about 100,000 Venezuelans crossed the border.


Venezuela is expected to dive deeper into the abyss this year, according to new projections published Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund.

Related: Venezuela oil production hits 13-year low
The IMF forecasts Venezuela's economy will shrink 10% this year, worse than its previous estimate of 8%. It also estimates that inflation in Venezuela will catapult to 700% this year, up from the earlier guess of about 480%.


"Venezuela's economic condition continues to deteriorate," says Alejandro Werner, chief Latin America economist at the IMF. The estimates for growth and inflation are the worst worldwide.

The numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Venezuela is deep into a humanitarian crisis -- people are dying in ill-equipped hospitals and many live without basic food items. Venezuela can't pay to import goods because its government is desperately strapped for cash after years of mismanagement of its funds, heavy spending on poorly-run government programs, and lack of investment on its oil fields.

It's all even more tragic given that despite Venezuela's oil abundance, its state-run oil company, PDVSA, is broke. Venezuela's oil production fell to a 13-year low in June, according to OPEC, of which it's a member.


It's cash and gold stockpile are dwindling too. Veneuzuela's foreign reserves are now a mere $11.9 billion, according to its central bank. Two years ago it had $20 billion. The country has had to ship gold to Switzerland this year to help pay down its debts.

Venezuela could be quickly approaching an economic judgment day. It owes about $5 billion in a string of bond payments between October and November. Many experts believe the chance of default is very high.

Now is the time for every man born of a woman to drop ego and get his or her hands on deck,
this is the time to roll up your sleeves and till the soil.

--Rafael Romo contributed reporting to this article

Yet I'm sure some imbeciles in Nigeria, if you give them money and visa to move to Venezuela, they'll happily go. Anywhere in their dumb minds, must be better than Nigeria. Even countries where people are crying with relief at the sight of milk and bread.

Rossikk:
Yet I'm sure some imbeciles in Nigeria, if you give them money and visa to move to Venezuela, they'll happily go. Anywhere in their dumb minds, must be better than Nigeria. Even countries where people are crying with relief at the sight of milk and bread.

abi boss thank God for Pmb for acting as a buffer and stabilizer at this critical period.
it would have been a different story.

Lalasticlala come and see what people are passing through.

Unfortunately, this is where Nigeria is headed if drastic measures are not taken to prevent this impending catastrophe.

Rossikk:
Yet I'm sure some imbeciles in Nigeria, if you give them money and visa to move to Venezuela, they'll happily go. Anywhere in their dumb minds, must be better than Nigeria. Even countries where people are crying with relief at the sight of milk and bread.

Nigeria is in the same situation with Venezuela. Just look at the GDP of both countries. Nothing for you to gloat about.