Venezuela's Awful Economy Got Even Worse in 2016

Source: Bloomberg

Venezuelans have to navigate a labyrinth of lines to buy staples like sugar or aspirin. Theyve gotten used to finding that the store shelves are empty, a frustration that sometimes boils over into looting. So they dont really need economic data to tell them that 2016 was a terrible year.

Still, when and if the numbers do come in, theyll likely confirm a collapse thats almost unprecedented outside wartime. The government has long since halted regular publication of GDP figures, maintaining radio silence since February. But the International Monetary Funds estimate, of a 10 percent contraction, would make Venezuela the worlds worst economy last year -- and thats toward the optimistic end of the spectrum. Private economists put the drop at as much as 15 percent.

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After the third and harshest year of what now qualifies as a full-blown depression, Venezuela has lost about a fifth of its output. A free-spending government was blindsided by the 2014 collapse in oil prices, which drained the economy of dollars, leaving many staple goods in short supply and pushing inflation to triple digits. As the country's economists try to pin down the numbers, its historians struggle to find parallels for such a slump, at least since the War of Independence two centuries ago.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-11/goodbye-recession-hello-depression-venezuela-gdp-takes-10-hit

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Yet another strike to add to the utterly failed experiment that is Chavismo and the Bolivarian "Revolution".