What It Cost to Buy a Chicken in Venezuela.

• Position: THE BIG PICTURE - Brief article

This is how much cash was needed to purchase a raw 5-pound chicken in Venezuela in August. The chicken cost 14.6 million bolivares (Venezuela's currency), the equivalent of a little more than two U.S. dollars. Hyperinflation in Venezuela has led to the "wheelbarrow problem," when a currency has become so worthless that people need a wheelbarrow of cash to make purchases. The International Monetary Fund estimates that Venezuela's annual inflation rate (the rate at which prices increase) could exceed 1,000,000% this year.

Home to the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela was once one of Latin America's richest countries. But declining oil prices and political corruption have plunged the...