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Suriname Slides Into Economic Abyss, in Shadow of Venezuela

by Pieter van Maele

It is a South American nation in crisis: Businesses are closing, food prices are soaring and hospitals are running out of basic supplies such as paper towels and bandages.

No, this isn’t Venezuela but rather nearby Suriname, a multi-ethnic former Dutch colony where the economy is in freefall amid collapsing global commodity prices and the local currency’s resulting slide against the U.S. dollar.

Paramaribo casino

Paramaribo

Life has become exceedingly difficult in this isolated country of about 540,000 people on South America’s northeastern coast, which the World Bank says now has the world’s third highest rate of inflation, behind Venezuela and South Sudan.

[further reading here/AP/New York Times, 21 September 2016]

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