"Venezuela was once the most prosperous country in Latin America. Much of this was due to economic freedom. In fact, in 1970 Venezuela had the highest level of economic freedom in Latin America, and 10th in the world, as ranked by the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) Index. The prosperity, however, led to ill-advised social and economic policies. The combination of shifting commodity prices, rapidly expanding public employment, and restrictive economic policies resulted in stagnation and then decline, exacerbated by populist political leaders who continued to expand unsustainable social programs.
Poverty levels in Venezuela now exceed 90 percent. Grocery queues stretch around city blocks and require hours of waiting to purchase meager supplies with mountains of devalued currency. Venezuela is the now lowest ranked country in the latest edition of the Fraser Institute’s EFW Report, coming in 159th with a "score of 2.92 out of 10. Notably, those scores are from 2016, and conditions have gotten worse since then."
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