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VENEZUELA-POLITICS
Venezuela says 2018 inflation 10 times lower than IMF estimates
CARACAS, May 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Venezuela ended 2018 with 130,060 percent inflation, while the economy contracted 47.6 percent between 2013 and 2018, the central bank said Tuesday in the first such figures it has released in three years.
The data found inflation reached 274.4 percent in 2016, 862.6 percent in 2017 and 130,060 percent in 2018 — figures 10 times smaller than International Monetary Fund estimates of 1,370,000 percent for last year.
The IMF projects 10,000,000 percent inflation for the oil-rich country in 2019.
The Central Bank of Venezuela also reported that oil exports — which account for 96 percent of the country’s revenue — plummeted to $29.8 billion in 2018, down from $85.6 billion in 2013 and $71.7 billion in 2014, when oil prices collapsed and the country’s political and economic crisis began.
Oil prices have since rebounded, starting in 2016, but Venezuela’s drop in production prevented a return to previous revenue levels — the country was producing 1.03 million barrels of oil per day in April versus the 3.2 million barrels it produced per day a decade ago.
The central bank had stopped providing officials figures three years ago without giving an official reason, though it had already been holding back the amount of economic information it reported.
BSS/AFP/AU/08:45 hrs