Venezuela accumulates a recession of 12 consecutive quarters



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Since Nicolás Maduro assumed the presidency of the country, the economy has accumulated a contraction of 42%, a historic recession of 12 consecutive quarters, surpassed only by 3 similar episodes in modern history: Liberia (1980), Tajikistan (1991)) and the Great Depression of 1870, emphasized the Standing Committee on Finance of the National Assembly, which released the Index of Economic Activity.

The contraction of the first quarter of 2018 was 12% compared to the same period last year.

Economist and deputy Ángel Alvarado said the decline is due to the decline in oil production, which reached 1.3 million barrels a day in June, according to the report. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The lowest figure in more than 60 years, added the deputy José Guerra, also a member of the commission.

Alvarado claimed that the other factor that affected the controls imposed on economic activities, and asserted that the consequence of the fall in activity is the impoverishment of the country that currently n & nbsp; Is not impoverishment, but misery.

"People do not have enough to eat or buy drugs, and obviously this affects malnutrition that not only lives on adults but also children, which leaves long-term consequences such as the loss of life. of weight and, in many cases, the cognitive problems of an entire generation that is suffering from the effects of this economic depression, "he said. Conindustria, agreed that the decline in economic activity is due to controls and the decline in oil production. He added that the fall of the former is also largely due to two other reasons: lack of respect for property rights, the rule of law and a contraction of demand arising from inflation. "Now you see consumers who do not have the power to purchase to access many products, so the factories are running out of power to place their products because they have not simply no consumers.Everything is part of the same whirlwind of very accelerated destruction that we are experiencing right now. "

Another reason why there is no economic activity is that the # One of the goals of socialism in the 21st century was to replace production. national by the import of goods, for which maintained an overvalued exchange rate which made it cheaper to import than manufacturing in the country

"Caused discouragement to local production and as a result closed many factories, which saw that it was over Then, he recalled, came the lack of respect for the rule of law and the right to property because the government began to "expropriate, loot, take, simply steal "all kinds of companies not only industrial, but also agricultural, trade, tourism or any other sector." He became the owner of many companies that produce nothing today. From the point of view of steel, there is no steel production; from the point of view of petrochemistry, there is no plastic production and, from the point of view of cement, there is no cement production, "he said.

Controls also had an impact. "When you are limited by the right to access foreign currency to import raw materials, you can not operate; when you place prices that are not cost-related, you have no profitability because you can not operate and close, "he said.

Therefore, they estimate that they currently have only 10% of the industrial production capacity they had in 1998.

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