(equivalent to 1,800 bolívares soberanos, or Bs.S) per month. Sales tax was increased from 12% to 16%. The new wage was estimated to be around $30 per month at the black market rate. It became effective on 1 September 2018. The minimum wage was further increased to 4,500 Bs.S ($9.50) a month in November 2018 and then to 18,000 Bs.S ($6.52) a month in January 2019, a 300% increase. By early April 2019, the 18,000 Bs.S monthly minimum wage was the equivalent of $5.50 – less than the price of a McDonald's Happy Meal. Ecoanalitica estimated that prices jumped by 465% in the first two and a half months of 2019. In March 2019, The Wall Street Journal stated that the "main cause of hyperinflation is the central bank printing money to fund gaping public spending deficits", reporting that a teacher could only buy a dozen eggs and two pounds of cheese with a month's wages. On 27 April 2019, President Nicolás Maduro increased the minimum wage from 18,000 Bs.S ($3.46) to 40,000 Bs.S ($7.69), according to a presidential decree. In addition, President Maduro also announced the resumption of food vouchers worth 25,000 Bs.S ($4.80). The new wages became effective on 1 May 2019. According to a local NGO, the new minimum wage covers only one tenth of the cost of basic food products. The wage only allows Venezuelans to buy about four kilograms of beef or two McDonald's Happy Meals per month. By mid-August 2019, further inflation of the bolívar soberano had decreased the minimum wage by 65% from $8 a month to $2.80 a month and it had decreased further to $2 a month by late August. Government spending In 2014, El Nuevo Herald reported that due a lack of money, SEBIN had decreased its work of monitoring of "potential external threats" and asked for Cuban intelligence agents to return to Venezuela. Bolivarian propaganda According to El Nacional newspaper, funding for "official propaganda" increased. 65% of the funds of the Venezuelan Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information (MINCI) were used for propaganda in 2014. A total of over 500 million bolívares were allocated as funds to MINCI. In the 2015 Venezuelan government budget, the government designated 1.8 billion Bs.F for the promotion of the supposed achievements of the Maduro administration, which was more than the 1.3 billion Bs.F designated by the Ministry of Popular Power for