Venezuela: new FX system, same old problems
Somewhat distracted lately with the death of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s government is finally getting around to replacing a system it scrapped well over a month ago that allowed importers to access foreign currency.
With shortages of basic goods worsening by the day as a result and fresh elections just around the corner on April 14, it was clearly prudent to devote some attention to the issue. Continue reading »
Venezuelan devaluation: of necrophilia and nymphomaniacs
If you thought economic debates were dull, stolid affairs, then think again. Just take a look at the debate currently raging in Venezuela for a master class in how to jazz up your economic rhetoric, after the government announced a devaluation last Friday.
While on the one hand you have critics saying the move was a result of “ideological necrophilia”, on the other there are officials scolding Venezuelans for acting like “nymphomaniacs”. Continue reading »
Venezuela: hard to find the dollars
Just how merry a lot of Venezuelans will be this Christmas depends to some degree on how many dollars the government decides to make available.
But with currency controls in place since 2003, it is becoming increasingly clear that the government is not terribly inclined to dish out too many dollars just now – only on Thursday the central bank president was forced to declare on national television that one of the official mechanisms for obtaining dollars was not in fact “paralysed”. Continue reading »
Venezuela: lean times ahead
If Venezuela’s finance minister Jorge Giordani is to be taken at his word, the OPEC country has entered a “new phase” of “stable and sustainable” growth.
Certainly, the economy’s 5.2 per cent growth in the third quarter announced by the government on Tuesday is not to be sniffed at, but there is a growing chorus of voices that suggest that Giordani’s projection of 6 per cent GDP growth for 2013 is at the very least optimistic. Continue reading »
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Stefan Wagstyl
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