Venezuela's consumer price growth hit in March hit 1.2%, maintaining the same pace as February, the country's central bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported. March's inflation is the lowest since August 2022. The country's 12-month inflation through last month stood at 67.75%, according to Reuters calculations based on central bank figures. Venezuela's government is redoubling efforts to control inflation by holding the exchange rate at 36 bolivars to the dollar, while weighing its spending amid an election year.

The highest bid received in a U.S. auction of shares that will decide the fate of Venezuela-owned oil refiner Citgo Petroleum was $7.3 billion, enough to cover only a third of court-approved claims, Reuters reported. A federal court in Delaware is auctioning the shares of a parent of Venezuela's foreign crown jewel, Houston-based Citgo, that it found liable for the South American country's debt defaults and expropriations. Creditors have flocked to Delaware to press claims totaling $21.3 billion in a case first brought nearly seven years ago by miner Crystallex.

After the U.S. dropped a broad array of sanctions against Venezuela in October, it warned that it could reimpose all of them, except one. The White House admitted that its ban on buying Venezuelan bonds was a failure that had potentially benefited enemies of the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Behind the scenes, a group of powerful Wall Street investors had been feeding Washington a stream of evidence that showed Venezuelan bonds were being traded by investors with ties to Russia. They said Moscow was hoping to gain influence in the U.S.’s backyard.

The Biden administration’s rollback of sanctions against Venezuela is offering a helping hand to bondholders owed $63 billion from the government in Caracas, many of whom haven’t been paid a dime in nearly six years, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Since the Biden administration loosened sanctions on President Nicolás Maduro’s government last week and allowed U.S. investors to once again buy and sell Venezuelan debt, trading in the South American country’s sovereign bonds has intensified and prices are rallying.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Wednesday defended its plan to cut off a Puerto Rican lender's access to the U.S. central banking system following a federal crackdown on banks with links to Venezuela, Reuters reported. In July, Banco San Juan Internacional (BSJI) sued the New York Fed to halt the looming termination of its "master account," which lets banks access the Fed's electronic payment system, because of concerns about its compliance with U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering rules.

Negotiators and officials representing Venezuela are opposing a court-ordered auction of shares in a parent of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum to pay creditors claiming more than $10 billion from expropriations and debt defaults, Reuters reported Some 20 creditors with arbitration awards or lawsuits against Venezuela and its state oil company PDVSA on Monday asked a federal court in Delaware to register their cases so they can participate in the October-scheduled auction. The auction puts priority on when claims were filed.

Venezuela’s opposition is finalizing an agreement with international creditors to extend a legal deadline on $60 billion of defaulted bonds, according to people with knowledge of the plan, Bloomberg News reported. The agreement being drafted by the opposition-led National Assembly — which is recognized in the US as the country’s legal representative — would suspend an upcoming statute of limitations on the debt. The offer could be approved by the National Assembly to present to bondholders as soon as this week, according to two of the people.

A U.S. court of appeals on Friday rejected Venezuela's bid to prevent six companies from joining a proposed court auction of shares in a Citgo Petroleum parent to enforce judgments for past expropriation of assets, Reuters reported. The decision allows the six to move ahead with their about $3 billion in combined claims against Venezuela state oil firm PDVSA in a Delaware federal court. That court is in the initial steps of preparing an auction as soon as September.

Negotiators representing Venezuela have held settlement talks with bondholders and creditors owed billions of dollars from defaults and expropriation claims, the head of a board supervising the country's foreign oil assets told Reuters. The talks have gained urgency as a federal court judge is to decide next month whether to kick off an auction of shares that could lead to the break-up of Citgo Petroleum, Venezuela's most prominent overseas asset. The U.S. has for years shielded Citgo from seizure under a license that will expire next month if not renewed.

A growing number of Venezuela-related expropriation claims at U.S. courts pursuing Citgo Petroleum's assets surpass $20 billion, making difficult for the Houston-based refiner to compensate them all, but some payments can be negotiated, said on Wednesday the chief of a board supervising the company, Reuters reported.