The Bolivarian Government published through the Ministry of People’s Power for Planning the new edition of “Venezuela in Figures”, an official report that shows, among other aspects, the indicators of the effects of the economic war against the country.
The text refers that among the variables of the war decreed by the United States government against the people of Venezuela, are “the cutting off of supply sources, generating maximum entropy to the Venezuelan economy, closing commercial, financial and logistical routes of the country”.
Due to the effects of the economic blockade, by the end of 2020, external financing lines have increased import costs by up to five (5) times due to the effects of logistics and trade restrictions by cutting off the possibility of international “free trade.”
This has resulted in the rise of country risk indicators in an induced manner by more than 14,000 points in terms of investments and financing.
Likewise, the Sectoral Vice-presidency for Planning reveals that the Republic’s oil revenues remain at a reduction of more than 99% in relation to the existing value for 2013.
In addition, it refers that, due to the strong effects caused by the availability of foreign exchange, the blockade and economic aggressions, non-oil imports have been reduced by almost seven times since the beginning of the war, which forces the Venezuelan State to prioritize investment in food and medicines:
“Food imports, directed by the State, went from a weight close to 20% to more than 50% of the total imports generated, not oil” refers the report, and adds that “The relative weight of food and Medicine products, in imports, shows the priority that the Bolivarian Revolution has given to the protection of the population, reaching 51% of the total imported by 2019”.
The figures show how the Bolivarian Revolution has prevented famine, “despite the clear direction of imperialist aggression in this sense.”
It is worth noting that the famine term has been one of the most manipulated by opposition spokespersons who have promoted the thesis of the “humanitarian crisis.”
“Venezuela was awarded acknowledgement by the FAO in the indicators of nutrition and poverty reduction, in 2013 and 2015. It is noteworthy that, as part of the war, the prevalence rate of undernourishment is highly sensitive to imports and domestic food production. Although the aggression did not manage to put the indicator at 40 points, at the critical condition level, the preceding value moved from low to moderately low “as the index stood at 12.0%”, quotes the report.
The text ratifies that “without social policies the social values of affectation would be four times greater.”
Another indicator that shows how the economic aggression affects the country is recorded in the service graphs, which due to the increase in financial and logistics costs have seen the availability of supplies and spare parts reduced to provide the highest quality of the system in public services.
According to data from the Ministry of People’s Power for Water Care, the volume of drinking water per inhabitant went from 466 m3 / person in 2013 to 271 m3 / person in 2020, while the percentage of the quality of the water resource that had registered 91.6% in 2013 stood at 87.5% for 2020.
Regarding macroeconomic indexes, the document shows that the country as a consequence of the blockade has been forced to reduce its international reserves from 22,541 million dollars in January 2015, to 6,386 million dollars for December 2020. This translates into in a decrease of at least 70%.
“International reserves have had to be used for the country’s food and health, and to face the destabilization of macroeconomic variables, reducing their value by more than two thirds,” reads Venezuela in Figures.
The damages of the parallel dollar:
The correlation of the parallel dollar and the National Prices Index (INP, an indicator that measures inflation) constitute one of the most striking phenomena in the economic war in recent years. The speculative voracity of currencies even shows inflationary levels for the foreign currency.
In Venezuela, due to the actions of external economic factors, the imposition of fluctuating prices of the dollar is recorded, a situation defined by experts in the economic field as “unprecedented.”
The text refers that, between 2015 and September 2020, the value of the correlation between the price of the speculative dollar rose to 99.55%.
«Exchange speculation and external pressure on macroeconomic variables has generated losses for the country of more than 116 billion dollars, as well as generated a contraction of productive economic activity, the aggression to the currency has a correlation with inflation of more than 90%, being used as a weapon to affect the democratization of access to goods and services, as a principle of the Bolivarian revolution, ” states the report.
