Page 11 - ATD 16Jan2016

WORLD NEWS A11
Saturday 16 January 2016

Venezuela acknowledges inflation at historic high

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, left, speaks with Presi- enact sweeping reforms. ministration took control of from above $90 a barrel
dent of the National Assembly Henry Ramos Allup, prior to de- The decree will be de- the chamber last week af- two years ago to just $24
livering his annual state of the nation report in Caracas, Ven- bated in the newly seated ter sweeping Dec. 6 legisla- today. Analysts say that
ezuela, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Ahead of a surprise dire economic opposition congress next tive elections. means Venezuela is get-
data release, Maduro said he would declare an economic week. Unlike last year, Maduro ting dangerously close to
emergency giving him 60 days to unilaterally enact sweeping In the evening, he arrived was not greeted by posters just breaking even on the
reforms. The decree will be debated in the newly-seated oppo- at the congressional build- of Chavez when he set foot oil it produces, which ac-
sition congress next week. ing to deliver his annual in the building. Instead, he counts for 95 percent of
state of the nation report, was received by hardline export earnings. The coun-
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) parading past crowds of opposition leaders who sat try’s newly-appointed eco-
cheering onlookers in the impassively as he began nomic czar has written that
red shirts adopted by sup- to defend his embattled “inflation doesn’t exist in
porters of Hugo Chavez’s administration. Another de- real life.” In its press release,
socialist revolution. parture: the chief of the U.S. the bank officials blame a
The speech represents the diplomatic mission in Cara- widely used website that
first time a president in 17 cas was in attendance. tracks the black market
years has had to speak in Venezuela, which has the rate of the Bolivar and oth-
front of a congress con- world’s largest oil reserves, er participants in an “eco-
trolled by the opposition. has suffered enormously as nomic war” for the soaring
Critics of the socialist ad- the price of oil has crashed inflation rate. q

HANNAH DREIER The Central Bank for the first
time acknowledged what
Associated Press analysts have long said:
That annualized inflation
CARACAS, Venezuela has surged into triple digits.
The bank said the econo-
(AP) — Venezuela on Fri- my contracted by 7.1 per-
cent during the quarter
day released its first eco- that ended in September
2015, and inflation reached
nomic data in more than 141.5 percent.
Ahead of the surprise data
a year Friday, showing release, Maduro said he
would declare an eco-
an economy in shambles nomic emergency giving
him 60 days to unilaterally
and inflation at a historic

high. The announcement

came hours before Presi-

dent Nicolas Maduro be-

gan his annual address to

congress, facing down an

opposition-led National As-

sembly for the first time.

AP report: Colombian trafficker
convicted in journalist’s murder

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) in Antioquia province said
— A member of Colom- that Javier Vega master-
bia’s largest drug-traffick- minded and carried out
ing organization has been the murder in conjunction
convicted and sentenced with the Usuga gang.
to 31 years in jail for three Press groups say Cervantes
murders, routinely denounced cor-
including that of a regional ruption while working for a
journalist in 2014. regional TV network.
Luis Carlos Cervantes was Since 1980 at least 144 jour-
gunned down in 2014, a nalists have been killed in
month after a government the South American nation,
withdrew his security detail many of them by illegal
without much explanation. armed groups that have
It’s not clear why he was fueled a half-century civil
murdered, but the court conflict.q