Venezuela's official floating exchange rate weakened past 600 bolivars per dollar on Thursday, the central bank said. The weaker tier of Venezuela's two-tiered currency controlled systems sells dollars for non-essential imports, while a preferential rate of 10 bolivars per dollar applies for priority goods such as food and medicine. Dollars on the unregulated parallel market sell for close to 1,100 bolivars, according to website DolarToday.
The government of President Nicolas Maduro hopes that a weaker exchange rate will help stimulate foreign investment in areas such as oil and mining and help provide foreign exchange to import goods such as food and medicine that are in short supply.