As unrest brewed Maduro consolidated power through political. The economy contracted over 10 percent in 2016 and inflation accelerated to 700 percent. Venezuela S Worst Economic Crisis What Went Wrong Business And Economy Al Jazeera A Facebook post shared tens of thousands of times since 2019 and recently viral claims that in only a decade Venezuelas once thriving economy was crippled by. Venezuela economy collapse . President Nicolás Maduro is continuing the disastrous economic policies. Sanctionscaused the crisis in Venezuela. Venezuelas recent problems go back to the 1980s when oil prices first began to plummet and the economy first collapsed. Since the 1920s Venezuela has been a rentier state offering oil as its main export. As economic theory predicted as state control of the agricultural industry increased Venezuelas food production fell 75 in two decades while the countrys population increased by 33. About the only thing Venezuela has in abundance is chaos.