The Venezuelan regime breaks the silence and admits the devastation of its economy

The Venezuelan government acknowledged Tuesday the devastation of the economy by revealing that inflation had reached 130 060% in 2018 and that GDP had halved since 2013, thus breaking a three-year statistical silence. According to the United Nations, this serious crisis has forced more than three million Venezuelans to emigrate since 2015 and triggered a violent power struggle between the chauvinist leader Nicolás Maduro and the opposition, led today by Juan Guaidó, President of the National Assembly.

According to the figures, first figures published by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) since early 2016, inflation reached 274.4% that year, reaching 862.6% in 2017 and 130 060.2% in 2018. These figures are very different from the calculation made by the National Assembly of the opposition, who estimated inflation at the end of 2018 to 1698. .000%. The IMF predicts an inflation of 10 000 000% by the end of 2019. Venezuela's gross domestic product is contracted by 47.6% between 2013 and 2018, according to BCV figures. official line. The variation is calculated until the third quarter of 2018. In addition, it was reported that the drop in GDP was 18.6% in 2017 and 19.2% until the third quarter of the year. 39, last year.

The "Global Ranking of Competitiveness", set each year by IMD and released this week, puts Venezuela in the bottom rank due to the impact of inflation, low access to credit and from the weakness of the economy.

Nicolás Maduro, who came to power in 2013 as heir to the late Hugo Chávez, attributes the economic collapse to US-imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela and its national oil company PDVSA. These measures have intensified since the beginning of this year with the support of Washington to Guaidó, recognized as "president in charge" by fifty countries, after the majority of the Legislative opposition declared Maduro "usurper" while He did not know that he was re-elected. For Henkel García, director of Econometric, BCV data "confirms that most of the destruction of the economy took place well before the sanctions".

BCV also informed that oil exports, a source of 96 percent of the Caribbean country's income, collapsed to $ 29,810 million in 2018. They stood at 85,603 million euros in 2013 and 71,732 million euros in 2014, when oil prices collapsed and the deep crisis raging in Venezuela broke out. According to official figures quoted by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the supply of Venezuelan oil, which was 3.2 million barrels a day ten years ago, was 1.03 million barrels in April.

BCV's cost-of-living data are lower than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates of 1 370 000% last year and for 2019 forecast inflation 10 000 000% the oil country.

BCV had stopped publishing macroeconomic information three years ago without giving any explanation. Previously, he had progressively reduced the indicators that he reported. Vital imports increased from $ 57,183 million in 2013 to $ 14,866 million in 2018, a figure that explains the severe shortage of basic necessities. Venezuelans face cyclical shortages of staple foods and chronic in the case of drugs and medical supplies, to which is added now the lack of gasoline, a good part imported. The collapse is even more noticeable in the case of non-oil imports, which increased from 44,067 million in 2013 to only 5,835 million in 2018.

S.D.