Venezuelans are grappling with political and economic chaos, a mass population exodus and fears of a US military attack. Now, their wallets are ever thinner as a return to hyperinflation looms.

Increasingly, people live hand to mouth, buying a tomato here, a few onions there as they manage to scrape together enough bolivars for just the basics.

"If we earn 20 bolivars, we need 50," informal merchant Jacinto Moreno, 64, told AFP in downtown Caracas.

To buy a kilogram of tomatoes, a Venezuelan needs the equivalent of one US dollar. But the average salary per month is only a few hundred dollars.

Reliable economic figures are hard to come by and a large portion of incomes are earned under the table in the informal sector.

"Prices go up every day," lamented Moreno. "Every day."

Venezuela has already had the highest inflation rate in the world, more than once.

Memories are still fresh of a record 130,000 year-on-year rise in prices recorded in 2018, according to official figures -- the peak of a four-year hyperinflationary period that ended in 2021 and pushed millions to emigrate.

Venezuela's central bank has not published inflation figures since October 2024, after President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in what is widely considered his second stolen election in a row. According to the leader himself, inflation reached 48 % in 2024.

The International Monetary Fund projects a 548 % figure for Venezuela for 2025 and 629 % for 2026.

Norma Guzman, a 66-year-old who works as an office cleaner, told AFP she can no longer afford to buy groceries monthly or weekly.

Leaving a store with nothing but three tomatoes in a bag, she said "I shop daily" as and when she, her husband and their son manage to put aside money for food.

Maduro blames Venezuela's economic woes squarely on US sanctions.

He also accuses Washington, which has deployed a fleet of warships in the Caribbean in a stated anti-drug operation, of seeking to depose him and seize the formerly rich petrostate's vast oil deposits.

Maduro has said Venezuela will register GDP growth of over nine % in 2025. The IMF estimates 0.5 %.

Colombian-based Venezuelan economist Oscar Torrealba is among those who expect inflation to soar above 800 % -- higher than IMF projections.

"This undoubtedly brings us much closer to a hyperinflationary scenario," he told AFP.