Venezuela is hiking the monthly minimum wage by 150 percent to about $9.50, President Nicolas Maduro said late on Thursday, as part of the struggling OPEC nation’s frequent wage increases that have failed to keep pace with inflation. The once-wealthy nation’s annual inflation now tops 800,000 percent, according to the opposition-run legislature, and citizens face chronic shortages of food and medicine. Maduro said in a televised broadcast that the new monthly salary would be 4,500 bolivars. Citizens routinely complain they cannot afford basic items despite a 60-fold minimum wage increase in August. The president says ... (full story)