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Strategies & Market Trends : John Pitera's Market Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (20556)	12/3/2017 10:43:45 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33421

Venezuela Oil and poverty is a country at the top of the Latin American continent that is in deep economic and political crisis. Here is a snapshot of the country. - Biggest oil reserves - Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, estimated at around 302 billion barrels, but its petrodollar-dependent economy has been hit hard by declining oil prices. Half of its GDP comes from oil and sales of its heavy crude account for around 96 percent of export earnings. It sells 40 percent of its oil to the United States, with which it has increasingly tense relations. Around another 40 percent of Venezuelan oil exports helps repay loans extended by China and Russia, according to analysts. The state oil company PDVSA produces 1.9 million barrels per day (mbpd) of oil, sharply down from the 2.6 mbpd last year. - Trouble at the top - Hyperinflation, shortages, debt - Venezuela's inflation rate is the highest in the world and expected to soar to 720 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The economy has meanwhile been shrinking since 2014, when oil prices fell. GDP is projected to contract 7.4 percent this year. As foreign currency to pay for imports has dried up, the country of 31.5 million people has suffered severe shortages of food, medicines and basic goods. It is a turnaround from the successes of the redistribution policies of Chavez that the World Bank says led to a decline in poverty from 50 percent in 1998 to approximately 30 percent in 2013. Transparency International's table of perceived corruption ranks Venezuela 166 out of 176 countries. Its crime and murder rate is also among the world's highest. The country is deeply indebted. It needs to borrow an estimated $25 billion to $35 billion a year, according to the World Bank. Currency reserves have dwindled to under $10 billion as the government keeps up debt repayments at the expense of imports to stave off a devastating default. france24.com