Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fellow Venezuelan here (although living outside of the country right now) I have hard times explaining to people how the economy works over there. Most people overestimate how harmful is a regime under foreign currency exchange control. But some metrics like the big mac index ( http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index ) can give a rough idea of what is happening.
The distortions these kind of controls generate cannot be explained to someone who lives in a normal economy. Here in Venezuela, it's much better to go in to debt (get loans to buy stuff like refrigerators, TVs, etc) than to use any unexpected or larger than usual income to pay off your debts because of the high inflation rate. Only in Venezuela can a car cost more the minute you drive it out of the dealerships (if y…
That is pretty much true in most countries but for different reasons. Over there, inflation rate is usually higher than the controlled interest rates. On the other hand, in other countries stores give you cheap loans to impulse sales.
In any case I am agreed with you that you have to spent some time over there to understand the distortion of a economy with a high inflation. Also you would understand how easy is for a government to manipulate economic metrics and give a different impression from outside the country.