After a 20 days delay
the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) has finally reported the inflation index
for November (4.8%), and a prediction for December (2.2%).
The numbers are far
from President Maduro’s prediction of a deflation of 5%, but the BCV did feel compelled
to explain in its report that the “economic dynamics” of the last months
have been influenced by a “economic war and a government’s counteroffensive.”
This is the BCV
version of the economic war theory as expressed in the first three paragraphs
of its report:
Dynamics of price
formation in the political and economic juncture of 2013: economic war and government’s
counter offensive.
During 2012 the
economic situation was characterized by high growth, moderate inflation, and
low scarcity levels, which allowed for the celebration of the presidential elections
in a stable juncture. However in October 2012 some of the central variables of
the Venezuelan economy began to suffer alterations: one of the most noticeable of
these alterations was the irrational rise in prices and the speculative extra-official
value of the dollar, which lead to a series of consequences for the national
economy during the year 2013.
The most serious of
these alterations, noticeable since the last quarter of 2012, were registered
by price and scarcity indicators, which remained during 2013 at unusually
[high] levels. The sickness and passing of our leader, Comandante Hugo Rafael
Chávez Frías, was taken advantage of by certain sectors of the political opposition
and some business owners in order to artificially affect the deterioration of
some economic variables.
As has become usual
in Venezuela’s history, political tensions and economic destabilization were
combined in the form of an authentic economic war against the Venezuelan
people, with significant impacts in the prices of the main good and services of
most consumption.
The report goes on to
explain the “relation” between moments of political tension in recent
Venezuelan history and how those moments have “been used” to wage an economic
war against the country. It also praises President Maduro for the “extraordinary”
measures he took during November 2013 against speculation and argues, without
explaining the methodology behind this assertion, that inflation would have
reached 6% in November, instead of 4.8%, if it were not for the “economic
counter offensive” of the Venezuelan government.
