Venezuela government prepares to sell small gold bars in public

Venezuela's government is preparing to sell small gold bars of up to 2.5 grams to the public, President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, who will be certified by the Central Bank and are part of a plan to stimulate savings.

The President showed on state television two cards with small gold pieces with the stamp of the issuing institute, and said that in a few days they will begin offering this gold in local currency to the population.

The offer is part of a programme of economic measures with which Maduro seeks to improve public revenues and take the oil nation out of a long recession and hyperinflation, taking advantage of the country's gold reserves.

Faced with constant devaluation of Venezuelan currency, the population has few investment alternatives.

The government wants retirees, housewives, businessmen and professionals from the middle class to buy the gold pieces after Maduro ordered the minimum wage to be increased from September, a measure that represents a huge burden for the country's firms under the economic crisis.

The gold ingots come from Guayana, Maduro explained, the area with the largest reserves of that precious metal where the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) has been buying it from small-scale mining, according to the authorities.