Venezuela’s highest court has cleared the path for Nicolás Maduro, the president, to enact emergency economic measures after it overruled the country’s new opposition-controlled legislature. The controversial move by the Supreme Court, which critics say is packed with supporters of Mr Maduro’s socialist government, potentially sets the scene for a bitter institutional crisis amid claims that the national assembly is being undermined. The court’s decision, announced late on Thursday night, removed the notion that Mr Maduro needed approval from the assembly for the emergency powers, which grant him greatly expanded authority over Venezuela’s tattered economy for 60 days. Hailing the ruling by the Supreme Court during a televised address, Mr Maduro said: “Now that the economic emergency decree has validity, in the next few days I will activate a series of measures I had been working on.” He is now free to intervene in business, to force companies to increase production, to access budget and off-budget funds, to allocate hard currency to speed up the purchase of essential imports, and to limit inflows and outflows of local currency. On the black market, one dollar is trading at 163 times the main official exchange rate.