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CARACAS. — Venezuela has received $5 billion in financing from China, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says. The money was for “development”, he said on Sunday, but gave no details. The announcement comes three months after Maduro travelled to China, a major investor in the region. Venezuela is suffering from an acute economic crisis, as the price of its main export, oil, has almost halved over a year. The opposition accuses the government of mismanagement.
Maduro visited Beijing in January and said at the time that China would invest more than $20 billion in Venezuela.
He did not make clear in Sunday’s announcement if the latest $5 billion was part of that larger sum. Loans by China’s state-owned banks to Latin American countries rose by 71 percent to $22 billion in 2014, according to estimates published by the China-Latin America Finance Database.
The Chinese loans exceed the combined worth of those by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, according to the database.
The $5 billion will be a boost to Venezuela, which has been hit hard by falling oil price. According to reports, 96 percent of its export revenues come from oil.
Figures from Venezuela’s oil ministry suggest that the price of Venezuelan oil has dropped from $97 in April 2014 to $50.
Inflation in 2014 stood at more than 60 percent and there are widespread shortages of basic staples such as flour, cooking oil and milk. — BBC.
Online Reporter