Business leaders accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday of attempting to strangle businesses that rely on imports by making them pay more for foreign-made products.
They said Chavez is irresponsibly allowing the black-market rate for US dollars to spiral upward, which increases costs for close to half of the country’s importers.
“The government doesn’t consider it a priority,” said Alfonzo Rivas, a businessman and president of the non-governmental group Cedice, which promotes individual and economic freedoms.
Chavez set a two-tiered exchange rate in January, pegging the bolivar at 2.60 to the US dollar for priority goods such as food and 4.30 per US dollar for imports of products the government deems nonessential.
The government has not distributed enough US dollars at the official rate to satisfy demand, however, forcing close to half of Venezuela’s importers to buy much more expensive greenbacks on the black market.
The black-market rate for the US dollar reached 8 bolivars last week — almost double the official rate for nonessential imports and triple the rate for essential imports.
For many businesses, “all the products that cannot be imported at the official rate must be obtained on the parallel market and that’s going to create more inflation,” Rivas said.
In a speech on Saturday, Chavez blamed wealthy business owners for soaring prices, suggesting they are conspiring to undermine his government’s anti-inflationary measures, such as price controls on hundreds of basic products ahead of congressional elections in September.
“There’s a conspiracy. The bourgeoisie are very much involved in managing the economy,” Chavez said. “I warn the bourgeoisie — we are not going to allow ourselves to be pushed around.”
Business leaders deny plotting against Chavez, countering that he seems determined to gradually replace private businesses and industries with state-run enterprises.
“The government sees the business community as an enemy,” said Rivas, whose own business imports raw materials to produce soups, microwave popcorn, cereal and other goods.
Victor Maldonado, who leads the Caracas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, told Union Radio that Chavez’s socialist economic policies — not business owners — are responsible for Venezuela’s double-digit inflation. He urged the president to moderate his agenda and seek new advisers.
“Any governing official with good judgment should rethink his ideological principles, economic policies and group of collaborators,” Maldonado said.
Last week, the Central Bank and National Statistics Institute reported a 5.2 percent increase in consumer prices last month, driving the annual inflation rate to 30.4 percent.
Jose Guerra, a former Central Bank official who teaches economics at the Central University of Venezuela, said that “the inflation problem is getting out of the government’s hands.”
Chavez implemented the two-tiered exchange rate to discourage imports of nonessential goods, while promoting domestic production of items such as food. Critics argue the initiative has failed.
Opposition leader Julio Borges said inflation is worsening because the government has not curbed the country’s dependence on imports.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS