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In this July 6 interview on PRI’s The World, WOLA Senior Fellow David Smilde looks at the causes of recent unbridled inflation and widening scarcity of basic goods in Venezuela. As he notes, the falling price of oil is merely one factor contributing to the current economic situation there. The roots of the country’s problems can also be traced back to a set of macroeconomic policies inherited by President Nicolas Maduro, which relied on continual growth of income from oil. “These were policies that were completely unsustainable,” Smilde explains.