Nowhere else has the collapse of oil prices has taken a higher toll than on Venezuela, where crude provides 95 percent of the country’s export revenue. Already facing recession, Venezuela is on the brink of economic collapse.
As that revenue dried up, the country has been thrown deeper into economic turmoil under President Nicolas Maduro. The economy is expected to contract by 7 percent this year, inflation soared to 69 percent—the highest in the world—and shortages of goods have forced shoppers to line up for hours at supermarkets to buy basic foods and products. The situation descended into the surreal earlier this week when the Prime Minister of neighboring Trinidad & Tobago proposed exchanging Venezuelan oil for Trinidadian tissue paper.
Meanwhile, the confluence of short supplies and government currency restrictions has distorted prices so much that some items are entirely inaccessible for Venezuelans who don’t have access to dollars—which is most of the country. Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported that a 36-pack of Trojan condoms was available for 4,700 bolivars on the auction website, MercadoLibre, used by Venezuelans to obtain scarce good. According to the official exchange rate, that would amount to roughly $755. (According to the black-market rate for people with dollars, it would be closer to $25, Bloomberg reported.)
To check up on prices, TIME scanned the MercadoLibre auction site and and the crowd-sourced website Expatistan.com, which lists costs of various goods in stores. Here’s a compilation of some of the most exorbitant prices when converted into dollars according to the official exchange rate:
iPhone 5, in original box: $11,433
Rawlings Baseball Glove: $1,809
Nike Free: $796
Dog Food (3 KG): $288
Levi’s 501 Jeans: $405
Nescafe (170 grams): $232
Fast Food Combo Meal: $31
Laundry Detergent (100 Ounces): $31
12 Eggs: $10
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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com