SALON

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013 3:30 PM UTC

Chavez ally: economic adjustments being considered

By

Topics: From the Wires,

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — An ally of President Hugo Chavez says the government is considering economic adjustments to combat Venezuela’s 20 percent inflation.

Former Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas told the Venezuelan station Union Radio on Monday that he understands the government is considering decisions relating to anti-inflation measures and “adjustments in some prices.”

Cabezas, a well-connected mid-level leader within the socialist president’s movement, is currently president of the Latin American Parliament, a regional organization. Cabezas also said that officials who are in charge of economic policies are to make decisions relating to currency exchange. He didn’t give details about what the measures could include.

Venezuela maintains strict currency exchange controls as well as price controls on many foods and other items.

Sporadic shortages of some foods, such as flour, cooking oil, chicken and coffee, have worsened in recent months. Causes include insufficient domestic production of such items, bottlenecks at ports and a reduction in the supply of dollars being granted by the government to import businesses.

Following months of heavy spending leading up to the country’s October presidential vote, the government starting in November reduced the amounts of dollars provided at the official exchange rate, putting new pressures on the country’s currency, the bolivar.

There have been growing rumors of a possible devaluation in recent months as the value of the dollar in black market currency trading has shot up to more than four times the government-set rate of 4.30 bolivars to the dollar.

Some analysts have said they expect the government may put off difficult economic decisions such as a potential devaluation while Chavez recovers from cancer surgery.

Chavez hasn’t been seen or spoken publicly since before his Dec. 11 operation in Cuba for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
279 points280 points | 248 comments
vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
248 points249 points | 18 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
217 points218 points | 31 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
84 points85 points | 16 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
90 points91 points | 7 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations