As prices have risen, there have been shortages of items like coffee, salt, flour, cooking oil and other basic products.

In his inaugural address, at a ceremony attended by Vice President Dan Quayle and other leaders from throughout the Americas, President Perez asserted the need for a common Latin American approach to the region's foreign debt, declaring that a ''formidable cartel of creditors'' had been able ''to impose their ideas and interests.'' But he avoided a confrontational approach, and abandoned six years of Venezuelan resistance to the I.M.F.'s austerity recommendations. $10 Billion in Loan Sought A team of Venezuelan officials is in the United States this week discussing the terms of an agreement with the International MonetaZy Fund, and today a letter of intent was signed for a loan of $1.5 billion, The Associated Press reported. Venezuela hopes to obtain around $10 billion from the fund and the World Bank over the next five years to shore up its international monetary reserves, which fell by 30 percent last year.

Venezuela's oil exports of $8.4 billion last year, representing 81 percent of the country's total exports, were down from $19.7 billion in 1981. Its monetary reserves at the end of the year were $6.6 billion, most of which are made up of gold.

Mr. Perez, a popular politician who was Venezuela's President through much of the 1970's oil boom, said Monday night that he could understand why people wanted to protest over higher prices, but warned that his Government would not tolerate lawlessness. More than 1,000 people were detained today in Caracas alone, the police reported.

The authorities have not yet made public official figures on casualties, but President Perez said today that ''several dozen people'' had died nationwide in two days of rioting and 200 to 300 people had been wounded, mainly by gunshot wounds or broken glass.

News agencies, quoting unidentified officials, cited more precise estimates of the dead and wounded. The Associated Press said as many as 50 people were killed and 500 wounded. Reuters quoted a military official as having said that 60 people had been killed in the capital and that unconfirmed reports indicated as many as 40 deaths elsewhere. Capital Is Paralyzed

The capital, with a population of around four million, was paralyzed today. No public buses or taxis were working. Schools, offices and stores closed early as mobs smashed store windows and carried off appliances, clothes and boxes stuffed with food and liquor.