From the BBC:
When Mr Chávez became president in 1999, he promised, among other things, to drive down Venezuela’s huge levels of inequality.
While he managed to reduce inequality during his time in power, some of the socialist policies he brought in backfired. Take price controls, for example, which were aimed at making basic goods more affordable to the poor by capping the price of flour, cooking oil and toiletries. The controls meant that many Venezuelan businesses stopped production because they no longer made a profit, eventually resulting in shortages.
A recent loosening of foreign currency controls originally brought in by President Chávez in 2003 has eased those shortages as traders can sell goods in dollars but that means they have again become largely unaffordable to the poor or those without access to the US currency.
Years of lack of investment in infrastructure further exacerbated by the more recent US sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector have crippled this key industry, which provides almost all of Venezuela’s government revenue.
