By IANS/EFE,
Caracas : The Venezuelan economy contracted by 3.3 percent last year amid the global recession and a decline in oil revenues, the country’s central bank said.
The president of the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV), Nelson Merentes, said in December that preliminary data indicated the Andean nation’s gross domestic product declined 2.9 percent in 2009.
In the report issued Tuesday, the BCV said Venezuela’s vital petroleum sector declined 7.2 percent in 2009, thanks largely to lower production by the world’s fifth-leading oil exporter.
Venezuela reduced output to comply with quotas set by the Organization of Oil-Exporting Countries, the BCV noted. The country’s oil production averaged about 3 million barrels per day in 2009, according to figures from state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
But declines were not limited to the oil sector, as transportation services plunged 16.9 percent, retail sank 13.9 percent, manufacturing was off 6.9 percent and mining dropped 4.8 percent, the BCV said.
On the upside, the communications sector grew 10.5 percent and utilities saw a gain of 5.5 percent.
President Hugo Chavez’s leftist government predicts the Venezuelan economy will grow by a “modest” 0.5 percent in 2010.
Venezuela’s economy, which expanded by 17.9 percent in 2004 as it rebounded from an opposition-led general strike the year before, enjoyed five successive of growth through 2008.