Venezuela is running out of cash and selling its gold

[Obiwan]

Isn't Socialism great???

Venezuela is running out of cash and selling its gold

Venezuela is running out of money fast and has started selling its gold.

The cash-strapped country could default by next year when lots of debt payments are due. Venezuela's reserves, which are mostly made up of gold, have fallen sharply this year asthe country needs cash to pay off debt and tries to maintain its social welfare programs.

Venezuela owes about $15.8 billion in debt payments between now and the end of 2016.

But it doesn't have enough to make good on its payments. Venezuela only has $15.2 billion in foreign reserves -- the lowest amount since 2003. A lot of those reserves are in gold.

Less than $1 billion of Venezuela's reserves are in cash, and it has a couple billion in reserves at the IMF.

 

[waltky]

State of emergency declared in Venezuela...

Venezuela economy: Nicolas Maduro declares emergency
15 Jan.`16 - The Venezuelan government has announced a 60-day economic emergency to deal with the country's worsening crisis. President Nicolas Maduro will govern by decree for two months.

The edict includes tax increases and puts emergency measures in place to pay for welfare services and food imports. The government's move came as official figures released by the central bank showed that the Venezuelan economy had contracted by 4.5% in the first nine months of 2015. The emergency was declared hours before President Maduro delivers a State of the Nation address to Congress for the first time since his centre-right opponents took control of the legislature. The decree also instilled more state controls on businesses, industrial productivity and on electronic currency transactions.

Some Venezuelan supermarkets are now guarded by soldiers, as prices rise and consumers are squeezed​

Oil price fall

Venezuela has the world's biggest known oil reserves but the huge fall in oil prices in the past 18 months has slashed its revenues by 60%. Annual inflation up to September 2014 is said by the Venezuelan Central Bank to have reached 141%. President Maduro and new Economy Minister Luis Salas have argued for the need to protect social programmes established by his predecessor, former President Hugo Chavez, from the global drop in oil prices.

The country has been suffering from food and basic goods shortages​

Oil exports account for as much as 95% of Venezuela's revenue. The government says the country's soaring inflation and basic goods shortages have been induced by political opponents. Correspondents say Venezuelans will be watching carefully to see if the opposition-dominated Congress will support President Maduro. If it does not, the Maduro administration could appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice.

Venezuela economy: Nicolas Maduro declares emergency - BBC News

 

[waltky]

Venezuela got more problems...

Venezuela changing time zone to battle power crisis
April 15, 2016 -- President Nicolas Maduro is proposing drastic new steps to combat the energy crisis crippling Venezuela. These include changing the country's time zone and rationing electricity supplies to 15 shopping malls.

Maduro said Thursday that the new change will take effect May 1. He didn't provide details, except to state that it will be an additional emergency measure to prevent power outages. Vice President Jorge Arreaza said Friday the country would move its clocks forward a half-hour to the GMT-4 zone. Venezuela is suffering from a severe drought, which is reducing power output by lowering water levels at hydroelectric dams that account for two-thirds of the country's energy needs. "It's a very simple measure that represents an important savings," Maduro explained about the time zone change.

He has also declared Monday a public holiday in a bid to save energy, and told shopping centers to generate their own electricity. Movie theaters are required to close early and the country's 30 million citizens have been asked to ease up on the use of hairdryers. Altogether, the Venezuelan government is looking to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent. Maduro has been giving state employees Fridays off to save power usage. Critics of Maduro's government say government inefficiency, lack of maintenance and lack of investment have exacerbated the problem. Maduro's administration has blamed a the "El Niño" weather pattern for making things worse.

The Guri hydroelectric plant in Venezuela's Bolívar state, which supplies the country with 63 percent of its hydroelectric power, is less than 10 feet from dipping to a critically low water level. It's not the first time in recent years that a Venezuelan president has taken the decision change the nation's time zone. In 2007, the late Hugo Chavez turned back clocks by a half-hour to make afternoons a little longer.

Venezuela changing time zone to battle power crisis

See also:

Venezuelan crisis affecting telephone service
Sun, Apr 17, 2016 - Things in Venezuela keep finding ways to get worse. Because of acute shortages, people cannot find basics like toilet paper. Now, it is likely to be harder to make overseas telephone calls or watch pay TV.

The problem is this: The global drop in oil prices has made US dollars much more scarce in Venezuela — which is dependent almost totally on petroleum for hard currency. So local telecoms companies do not have US dollars to pay international suppliers. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government controls the currency market and distributes US dollars to private companies as it sees fit. The government owes local companies about US$700 million, which these firms need to honor obligations with foreign providers, according to the Chamber of Telecommunications Services Companies.

So as a result, for instance, the Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica is this week scheduled to temporarily suspend long distance telephone calls to countries such as the US, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Colombia and Panama. Mobile phone company Digitel, which is privately owned, has halted long distance calling services and international roaming since Saturday last week because it cannot reach agreement with providers on new payment timetables. However, it is not just telephone services that are affected.

State-run television company Cantv, which provides cable service said it is reviewing contracts with content providers, which means there is less to watch on TV in Venezuelan living rooms. “For two weeks now, I have lost six of my favorite channels,” said Isael Gonzalez, a 46-year-old motorcycle taxi driver and Cantv subscriber. “They were the ones showing movies and cartoons — so I decided to unplug the whole thing. What use is it if the channels I like are off air?”

Drisley Petaquero, 36, also said several channels had been cut from her father’s Directv pay-TV service. “Especially the ones showing comics — there used to be five and now there are just two,” she said. “He complained to the company and they told him they were performing maintenance work.” The state regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission, admits there is a problem and blames the lack of US dollars.

MORE

 

[AvgGuyIA]

That country use to be a shining example for South American countries to emulate. But ever since their version of Barrack Obama was elected and decided to dictate rather than govern constitutionally, the country has become a shithole.

This is what another term of Obama by Hillary or Sander's will do to America.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Bush's fault.

Global warming

 

[Kosh]

Many of the more socialist countries have had to make hard choices as thei8r over bloated social programs will trump every thing else..

Greece was a prime example as well.

Socialism/Communism has never worked.

 

[Meathead]

They're feeling the Hugo.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Every Sanders supporter should have to live there for a week

 

[waltky]

Venezuela 'on the ropes'...

Venezuela sold $1.7B in gold this year; lowest reserve level on record
May 26, 2016 -- Venezuela has sold at least $1.7 billion in gold reserves to pay debts this year, decreasing the South American country's gold reserves to the lowest level on record.

Venezuela sold more than 40 tons of gold in February and March, and in the past year the country's reserves have dropped by nearly a third. Last week, Venezuela's total reserves fell to a low of $12.1 billion, of which gold accounts for nearly 70 percent.

The International Monetary Fund predicts the Venezuelan economy will shrink 8 percent in 2016 and will contract an additional 4.5 percent in 2017. Venezuela, which had the world's 16th largest gold reserves, began selling part of its 367 tons of gold reserves in March 2015 -- likely to Russia, China and Switzerland.

Venezuela and its government-run oil company, PDVSA, have about $6 billion in principal and interest debt payments this year. Inflation is forecast to exceed over 1,600 percent in 2017. Venezuela has been the biggest seller of gold out of all countries in four of the last five financial quarters.

Venezuela sold $1.7B in gold this year; lowest reserve level on record