Venezuela’s GDP grew at record pace in 2004

February 17, 2005

The Venezuelan Central Bank announced that GDP went up 17.3% in 2004, the highest such increase recorded by the Central Bank. The increase in oil activities was 8.7% and 17.8% in non-oil activities, while the public sector grew by 11% and the private sector by 18.6%.


This is a very good bounce off the 2003 low and is needed if the standard of living of Venezuelans is to rise significantly. We hope growth continues, although such a high pace is clearly not sustainable. This growth was driven by higher oil prices and strong Government spending. Construction led the growth with 32% increase, after some terrible years of -19.8% in 2002 and -37.4% in 2003.  This is by far the best economic year, in terms of GDP growth, for the Chavez Government which has had the following track record, but it only takes the economy back to the levels of 1997 and below the highest year of economic activity which was 1998:


 


1999          -6.1%


2000          +3.2%


2001          +2.8%


2002          -8.9%


2003          -9.4%


2004          +17.3%

This entry was posted on February 17, 2005 at 12:25 am and is filed under Venezuela.

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