Word: escudos
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...black market reflected this mass exodus. Since the Angolan escudo is worth nothing outside Angola (one of Portugal's many exploitations), foreign currency was in great demand by those trying to leave and by the black marketeers who got to the foreigner first. On the day after we arrived, August 24 the highest dollar exchange was 32 escudos--the official rate is 25 to the dollar. But on September 16, the day before we left, the white counter-coup had failed to prevent the independence of Portugal's colony on the east coast of Africa, Mozambique, and one dollar...
...policies. The Allende regime had forced industry to hire unneeded workers; many of them have been fired, adding to Chile's high jobless rate. To blunt the inflationary impact of the artificially swollen money supply-Allende had simply printed more and more currency-the new government devalued the escudo by 58%. That action severely chopped into the buying power of all but the wealthiest consumers. In addition, the junta has largely scrapped Allende's heavyhanded controls on prices, which were kept so low in relation to costs that farmers and businessmen let production plummet for lack...
...Compromises. Chile also has one of the world's highest rates of inflation, more than 300% for 1973. To bring the spiraling economy under control, the junta has devalued by more than half the wildly inflated escudo, and ordered huge price increases for such necessities as sugar (400%) and cooking oil (500%), which had been subsidized at prices far below their market value. It canceled the inflationary (300%) wage increase in minimum salaries approved by Allende, but instituted a system of bonuses and benefits that has increased the minimum income to $42 a month...
...junta has also moved vigorously in the economic sector, which Allende left a shambles. Draconian measures such as the summary execution of black marketeers, an across-the-board freeze on wages and the drastic devaluation of the escudo have stabilized prices. Under Allende, inflation had risen more than 300%. The lucrative copper mines, which were plagued with labor strife, are functioning smoothly again. The junta has also announced its interest in negotiating with foreigners to lure badly needed investments to the country. Striking truckers are back at work, and food and other staples are beginning to flow into the major...
Hoping to brighten the dour national mood, government leaders declared a nationwide system of wage increases and lump-sum bonuses, which is likely to take effect sometime after the parliamentary elections in March. The plan applies to those making less than $434 a month in greatly inflated escudos, and will be formulated on a sliding scale favoring the lowest-paid workers. Chileans, however, have learned to be wary of the consequences of such enforced increases. In October 1971, after a 100% wage jump was ordered to give the lower classes more buying power, shoppers emptied shelves of already scarce consumer...