Now, dollars sell on the blackmarket at three times the official exchangerate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.
The government has abolished jail terms for those caught dealing in foreign currency, offered extra incentives for private investment and brought the official exchangerate closer to the black-market one.
This action targets those people that have been using credit cards as a way to purchase at the official rate rather than the blackmarketrate, in effect creating a dual credit card exchange regime.
With hyperinflation, a gap of around 10:1 has opened up between the official exchangerate operated by the bank and the true rate reflected in the blackmarket.