50% currency devaluation squeezes Nicaragua's poor

MANAGUA, Nicaragua Nicaragua's two-day-old government slashed inhalf the value of the national currency Friday in an effort to patchup the battered economy.

Prices shot up accordingly, but the wages of most Nicaraguans,many of whom earned the equivalent of $30 a month before thedevaluation, did not.

At the new prices, a pound of rice, one of beans and one of beefcost a total of 205,000 cordobas, or $1.46.

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro assumed the presidency Thursday,inheriting an economy battered by war with the U.S.-backed contrasand by an American trade embargo, which has been lifted.

The unpopular devaluation was an austerity measure that …