What next for Venezuela’s broken economy, with 1,000,000 per cent hyperinflation?

Whether it sparks a social revolution or forces the government to open up the economy, one thing for sure is that Venezuela’s projected one million per cent inflation will heap more misery on an already suffering population.

Earlier this week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made the stunning projection, adjusting its previous estimate of inflation at 14,000 per cent to a figure more than 70 times higher.

Already, poverty is reaching unprecedented levels, an estimated 1.6 million people have fled the country, social unrest is on the rise among those who stay, salaries have become almost worthless, there are shortages of food and medicine – and yet President Nicolas Maduro clings to power.

“Nothing surprises me,” Marcos Salazarsaid after being told of the IMF projection as he munched on a hamburger while standing beside a street stall.

That burger cost five million bolívars (around US$1.50 on the black market), the equivalent to the minimum monthly salary, which is itself partly paid in food vouchers.

“Week after week, day after day, things cost more. It’s not gradual, it’s exponential,” added Salazar, a 31-year-old professor working three jobs, which still isn’t enough to support him and his partner.