Banco Central de Venezuela again sides with official discourse on Economic War

Hours before president Maduro gave an end of the year press conference in which he blamed the opposition protests, an economic war, and the Empire, for Venezuela’s economic troubles (“Inflation is not a neutral number, but the result of an economic war”), the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) issued its long awaited economic report.

The report titled “Results of the Economy during the Year 2014”, supports the government’s conspiracy rhetoric on the alleged effects of a wide opposition conspiracy against the country’s economy.

According to the report inflation (60.1% for 2014) “continues to be affected by the political unrest [conflictividad] induced by the economic war which blocks the normal functioning of productive activities, the distribution and commercialization of essential goods demanded by the population since the beginning of the year, despite of the governmental measures implemented against the extraction [smuggling] of products.”

Recession (Venezuela has had negative growth for three consecutive quarters), is blamed mainly on the overall effect of the “economic war” and the opposition protests beginning in February 2014.

The previous two by BCV reports also blamed the opposition and the “economic war” for economic problems.

The April 2014 report blamed the “irrational practices” of “radical groups from the opposition” for high inflation.

The September 2014 report, also stated that the monthly variation of the Consumer Price National Index slowed down in August for the third consecutive month, thus reaching the lowest level observed since March, when the results of the indicator began to be affected by the political conflict induced by the economic war, which obstructed the normal behavior of productive activities, and the distribution of essential goods demanded by the Venezuelan population.”