CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government has revised its economic data for 2014, showing that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined 4.0 percent in the worst performance around Latin America, according to a filing yesterday in the United States.
President Nicolas Maduro had said earlier this year that GDP shrank 3 per cent last year.
The government has given no GDP data for 2015, to the anger of opponents and consternation of economists.
In its filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Maduro government said the OPEC nation’s petroleum sector expanded 0.3 per cent last year, whereas the non-petroleum sector decreased 3.8 per cent.
Inflation was 68.5 percent.
Most economists predict a similar or worse GDP performance this year, with even higher inflation.
Venezuela makes the filing to the SEC because it is an issuer of dollar-denominated bonds.
Maduro says domestic political foes and opposition-aligned businessmen have been deliberately sabotaging Venezuela’s economy via hoarding, price-gouging, smuggling and other means.
But critics say 16 years of hardline socialist policies, including price and currency controls plus hostility toward the private sector, are behind Venezuela’s economic woes.
The plunge in oil prices, which account for 96 per cent of hard-currency revenues, has also hit Venezuela hard.
Imports plunged to $32.15 billion last year, compared with $53.02 billion in 2013, according to the filing.
Export revenue dropped to $60.50 billion in 2014 from $88.96 billion the previous year.
The filing confirmed ally China had loaned Venezuela more than $55 billion since 2007, to be repaid with oil shipments.
“The Republic agreed a US$10.0 billion loan with China in March 2015, and a further US$5.0 billion loan with China in September 2015, to be used to finance oil projects,” it added of the most recent components of that total.
