Venezuela in crisis

The current Venezuelan economic reality is somewhat complex.
The elements that are tied and explain the behavior of the national economic system are diverse. However, many of these elements are integrated and exposed through statistical indicators, which in the case of Venezuela at the end of the year 2017, are not so benevolent based on what they establish the theories of capitalist economic current.

The truth is that, in our country, a new type of war is being waged in the national and international political scene, where no foreign armies are confronted or bombs are being left in our territory, leaving wakes of blood everywhere. Rather, what prevails is the use of technologies, information and propaganda for destabilizing and insurgent purposes, with negative economic and social consequences, which have been completed by civil society. A war whose results projected from a strictly economicist perspective, shows us a sick economy, plunged into a depressive trap (recession with high inflation).

The following shows the variations of some essential economic indicators, between January and December 2017, to understand the Venezuelan reality: the level of wages, oil prices, oil production, monetary liquidity, reserves International, official, parallel and implicit exchange rate, the price-induced variation in the food sector, and the payment of the sovereign debt and PDVSA bonds and their interests. (Table No. 1).

Table 1: Basic economic indicators

Variation January to December 2017

Salary increases 2017 (Integral from 104,000 Bs. To 456,000) includes basket tickets.

Increase in oil prices (from 35 to 46.24 US $/b) or 271 yuan)

Oil production drop (located in 1.9 MM daily barrels

Increments liquidity M2-2017 (11 to 100 trillion bolivares)

Fall of international reserves (from 10,709 to 9,780 thousand MMUS $)

Official exchange rate increment-2017 (Dicom from 689.9 to 3345 Bs/US $)

Implicit dollar increase (from 1,073 to 10,289 Bs/US $)

Increments Dolartoday 2017 (from 3415 to 108,000)

Estimated price-induced variation (food sector)

Payment of sovereign debt commitments and PDVSA bonds plus interest (MMUS $.) 2017. For the 2018 there are commitments for 8,019 MMUS $.

Own calculations based on information from the BCV, Dolartoday.com, MMPPP, among others.

In this paper, it describes and analyses the political, economic, financial situation of Venezuela today, in order to understand this reality and dare to design some scenarios of the immediate future that approaches us, from a systemic-complex perspective, Maintaining a critical, yet motivating and hopeful sense, betting that one day, together as a society, we find the way to solve these difficulties. Solutions that often look somewhat blurred, especially in those who do not live in the country, or in those who do not know the matter that is our responsibility: the economy.

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