Cargando Video 
Monday, February 12, 2007
Special Reports
Venezuela: State Grows, But At Huge Cost
As President Hugo Chavez moves to nationalize the top private companies, there are growing questions about the viability of the top state company PDVSA.
LESS EFFICIENT: State oil giant PDVSA is becoming less efficient and more political. Here from a march on February 4 by PDVSA workers conmemorating the mass firings of anti-Chavez staffers 4 years earlier. (Photo: PDVSA)
BY CHRONICLE STAFF
Venezuela may be an oil-rich country, but you wouldn't believe it by visiting supermarkets in Caracas these days. Basic items like meat and sugar are missing thanks to government price policies that have resulted in importers and producers from losing money by selling at artificially low prices.
"The price controls that were established by the government were totally divorced from the cost," says Pedro Palma, director of MetroEconomica consultancy in Caracas. "They condemn producers and importers and traders to lose money."
Full story
Post Your Comments
You can write a comment on this article by clicking here.
You can write a comment on this article by clicking here.
There are no comments on this article. If you wish, you can write one.
Other articles in : Special Reports
