Venezuela's government has taken nearly 4 million children's toys from a toy company. It will give the toys to children for free or at low prices. The government says the company unfairly charged high prices for the toys so only rich people could buy them. Venezuela has one of the highest rates of inflation in the world. The rate could be as high as 2,000 per cent in 2017. Many Venezuelans can't afford non-essential items like toys. Even a jar of Nutella can cost half the monthly minimum salary. In the past few months, Venezuela has also cut the price of clothes.
The government seized 3,821,926 toys. It tweeted: "Our children are sacred….Boys and girls of this country will have a happy Christmas." The government said the toy company kept the toys out of the shops to reduce their supply and increase prices. The government also said it bought the toys with dollars it got at very low rates and tried to sell them at much higher prices. The company said it has done nothing wrong and was not trying to sell the toys at high prices to make big profits. It said many of the toys were out of fashion.
