following his 50% devaluation. Nice going, asshatVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that businesses have no reason to raise prices following the devaluation of the bolivar and that the government will seize any entity that boosts its prices.
"no reason" if you want to go out of bizness
Chavez said he'll create an anti-speculation committee to monitor prices after private businesses said that prices would double and consumers rushed to buy household appliances and televisions. The government is the only authority able to dictate price increases, he said.
worked for Nixon
“The bourgeois are already talking about how all prices are going to double and they're closing their businesses to raise prices,' Chavez said in comments on state television during his weekly “Alo Presidente' program. “People, don't let them rob you, denounce it, and I'm capable of taking over that business.'
"I can ruin it faster than they can!"
Chavez devalued the bolivar as much as 50 percent on Jan. 8 for the first time in almost 5 years, as last year's decline in oil revenue caused the economy to contract an estimated 2.9 percent, its first recession since 2003. The government set a multi-tiered currency system that Chavez says will stimulate national production by making imports more expensive.
The devaluation may add to inflation by 3 percent to 5 percent this year, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said. The government forecast an inflation rate of 20 percent to 22 percent this year, after consumer prices rose 25 percent, according to the National Consumer Price Index.
The government also will “attack' the so-called parallel exchange rate, which Chavez called “illegal.'
"anything is illegal, if I say it is!"
Venezuelans turn to the parallel rate when they can't get government authorization to buy dollars at the official exchange rate. The bolivar traded at 6.25 per dollar on Jan. 8, traders said.
“They put the value of the dollar at more than 6 in an arbitrary and illegal manner,' Chavez said. “We have to organize to reduce and attack that speculative, illegal dollar that hurts the Venezuelan economy so much.'