Venezuela needs stable cash more than it needs gold.

An exclusive report by Reuters has revealed that Venezuela removed 8 tonnes of gold from theirs central bank during the first week of April. The Venezuelan state is currently in dire need of more cash, and they are thus expected to sell the gold to offset US sanctions, according to one lawmaker and one government source.

US sanctions have choked off a portion of Venezuelan state revenues which come from the state oil company PDVSA. The distraught leadership in Venezuela has resorted to sales of the Central Bank’s huge gold reserves as the sole reliable source of foreign currency, and one of the only sources in general. The government source reported to Reuters that the Central Bank of Venezuela’s reserves have fallen by 30 tonnes since the start of the year before US President Donald Trump intensified sanctions. The central bank currently still holds approximately 100 tonnes of gold, worth more than $4 billion.

At the current rate of decline, the Central Bank of Venezuela will run out of its reserves by the end of the year. This would likely cause the government to struggle to import basic goods, inflaming the current situation, which is already dire. Neither the Central Bank of Venezuela nor the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information were available for comment as of Tuesday morning.