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Venezuela’s economy continues to struggle in the latest shortages of everything from food to diapers. The government hopes to lessen those shortages by using a fingerprint scanning system. CCTV America’s Martin Markovits reports.

Venezuela turns to fingerprinting system to curb product shortages Venezuela's economy continues to struggle in the latest shortages of everything from food to diapers. The government hopes to lessen those shortages by using a fingerprint scanning system. CCTV America’s Martin Markovits reports.

In Caracas, even beauty salons are struggling, and hair stylists have had to get creative about how they maintain and style their clients in the face of widespread shortages across the country. Beauty items are not the only things that are scarce. There are now a wide range of items that people simply cannot find, which includes nearly 30 of the 100 basic and price-controlled consumer goods in the country, such as soap, milk and coffee.

In an attempt to stop these shortages and weed out smugglers, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is using a new fingerprint scanning system in supermarkets. The system is aimed at preventing people from buying too much of the same product. Those who oppose it call it sanctioned rationing.

Customers will be limited, electronically, to the amount of items they buy each week. Maduro said this would be an effective tool to deal with Venezuela’s economic problems and cut down on crime.

Some economists say that the situation is attributed to Venezuela’s decade-long price and currency controls, which left companies struggling to get money to pay for imports. Heavy subsidies also left many staples inexpensive, allowing shoppers to stock up and resell items either on the local black market, which fetches up to five times the price, or in neighboring Colombia.

The government said about 785,000 people registered in six state-operated markets. In the coming months, the government hopes to implement this new fingerprint scanning system nationwide.