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 »
Venezuelan dollar bonds: rally time
For all the moaning in Venezuela about last Friday’s devaluation (which the most cynical critics were saying was absolutely essential, until it happened, and then it became a disaster), there is at least one group of people who are fairly content with the development: investors in Venezuela’s dollar bonds.
Once again, a move by Venezuela’s socialist government was in lockstep with the interests of those arch-capitalists on Wall Street. Look no further than the reaction of Venezuela’s sovereign bonds on Monday, with benchmark yields falling to a five-year low. Continue reading »
Even multilatinas get the Venezuelan devaluation blues
What do a Mexico tortilla maker and a Chilean wood panel manufacturer have in common with Colgate-Palmolive and Telefonica?
Answer: they all have sizeable operations in Venezuela and their shares are feeling the squeeze after the government of Hugo Chávez announced a surprise devaluation on Friday. Continue reading »
Venezuela devaluation: it finally happened
At last it happened. With traffic jams piling up all across the country as most Venezuelans were taking off for the beach to celebrate carnival, the government quietly announced a devaluation of its currency.
It was something that economists had long been saying was essential, with the dollars selling on the black market for almost five times the value of the official exchange rate this week. Continue reading »
[snap]: Venezuela devaluates currency
It’s finally happened. Venezuela’s government announced Friday that is devaluing the country’s currency.
Officials said the fixed exchange rate is changing from 4.30 bolivars to the dollar to 6.30 bolivars to the dollar with immediate effect. It will also be scrapping the currency exchange system known as SITME through which Venezuelans could buy dollars for 5.3 bolivars. Continue reading »
Counting the cost of Chavez’s absence
Well, the hour came, but the man didn’t. Luckily a subservient judiciary meant that this was not such a problem for Hugo Chávez – his no-show at the start of his new presidential term today doesn’t really seem to matter. Continue reading »
Venezuela: devaluation postponed?
Hugo Chávez’s designated successor, Nicolás Maduro, warned on Wednesday of “difficult” times ahead. Although Venezuela’s cancer-stricken president was successfully operated on this week, the recovery period is going to be “complex and tough”, he said.
This has significant implications for the economy, particularly given the fact that information minister Ernesto Villegas openly raised the possibility that Chávez might not even be back in time for the inauguration of his next presidential term on January 10th – in which case the people should be “understanding”. 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 »
Colgate: not toasting Chavez’s return
How do you toast the victory of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s socialist president, who last Sunday won another six-year term, reconfirming him as one of Latin America’s most commanding political figures?
Not, perhaps, with Scotch, beer, or coca-cola. Indeed, the manufacturers behind virtually every international drink are more likely to be in the doldrums over the news than in celebratory mood. Continue reading »
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