The recent jump in global oil prices should allow oil-rich Venezuela to comfortably meet its financial obligations through the rest of the year, the Finance Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
The recent jump in global oil prices should allow oil-rich
Venezuela
to
comfortably meet its financial obligations through the rest of the year, the
Finance Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
Venezuela
's
basket of crude oil prices, which typically runs about $10 a barrel less than
the global benchmark, averaged $71.14 a barrel last week, compared with an
average of $57.02 a barrel in 2009.
"The 2010 national budget is based on $40 a barrel oil," Finance
Minister Jorge Giordani said, according to the statement. As such, he said, the
current oil prices give
Venezuela
"more maneuvering room for the rest of the year."
Oil accounts for more than one-third of
Venezuela
's
gross domestic product, more than half of government revenue and about
nine-tenths of the country's exports.
Venezuela
's
debts began to pile up in early 2009 as oil prices fell to as low as $34 a
barrel. By October, the country's state oil firm PDVSA owed service providers
as much as $5 billion.
But officials this year said those bills with oil-service firms have been paid
in full.
The government decision in January to devalue the bolivar currency by half is
also helping the country meets some of its debts, as it means each barrel of
oil sold reaps twice as much when converted to local currency.
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