The Venezuelan Central Bank has announced the creation of a new currency exchange entity known as SIMADI, which will allow dollars to be sold and purchased legally according to “market rates”. The new mechanism will operate alongside SICAD I and SICAD II, which will continue to sell dollars at an exchange rate set by the government.
On Thursday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made a much-anticipated address to the Venezuelan legislature in which he announced slight changes to monetary policies and the need to raise the extremely low cost of gasoline in the country. He also announced a 15% increase in the minimum wage and increased investment in education and housing.
Venezuelan leftists and government supporters will march in Caracas this Jan. 23, a symbolic date for Venezuelan democracy, a municipal mayor of the city has announced.
Following increased buying during the holiday season, Venezuela is facing shortages in food, basic goods, such as diapers and laundry detergent, medicine, and automotive items. As lines to purchase goods, especially at state-subsidized markets, have continued to grow, opposition leaders called for a nationwide strike on Monday- which was widely ignored.
While visiting with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said Saturday that plummeting oil prices are the product of a “geopolitical war.”
President Maduro announced that China has agreed to invest 20 billion dollars in Venezuela following the China- Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) meeting in Beijing. Venezuelan officials hope that increased Chinese investment will offset some of the shortfalls in the Venezuelan economy due to decade-low oil prices.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro shared “good news” from Chinese capital Beijing yesterday, after meeting with Chinese leaders and business owners to forge further pacts meant to mutually benefit both countries’ economies.
President Maduro announced measures to address monetary policy in Venezuela, including appointing Economist Rocco Albisinni as the new President of the National Center of Foreign Exchange (CENOCOEX).
The Venezuelan government has published previously withheld data revealing that the economy entered a recession in the second quarter of this year. However President Nicolas Maduro said significant changes to Venezuela’s economic model were being planned and that an economic “recovery plan” would be implemented in early 2015.
During a Mercosur summit held today in Argentina, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro called Barack Obama’s recent move toward normalizing US-Cuba relations “brave,” while the rest of the trade bloc released a statement condemning the US leader for approving sanctions against Venezuela last week.
Yesterday the United States Senate passed the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014 by voice vote, a bill that will impose further sanctions on Venezuelan senior government officials if passed tomorrow by Congress.
In an announcement made on Friday, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pledged to slash spending in certain areas, such as senior government officials’ salaries, while swearing “we will never cut one bolivar of what we spend on education, food, housing... on our people.”
In a television address yesterday evening, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro indicated that a $4 billion loan from China would be added to the country’s international reserves. Meanwhile, as oil prices to continue to slide and with eight days to go to the next OPEC meeting, Venezuela has signed a major deal with the largest exporting non-OPEC member, Russia.
Yesterday evening, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro passed 28 laws by means of the enabling law, which permits executive action without Parliament approval. The bills, 16 of which were revealed in Tuesday’s promulgation ceremony, make up a comprehensive economic reform directed at industry, agriculture, tourism and tax revenue.
