AFP, Caracas :
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered his government Saturday to slash the budget of his oil-dependent and economically-weak nation, as crude prices plunge after OPEC held output steady.
The leftist leader called for a “substantial reduction” of the salaries of senior government officials, from state firms to ministries and his own wages.
While insisting that Venezuela “has the conditions to resist the falling oil price,” Maduro announced a commission tasked with cutting public spending.
Maduro said his economy minister, Rodolfo Marco Torre, would travel to China next week to “deepen economic and financing agreements” that would help Venezuela cover the oil revenue shortfall.
The Chinese government has already loaned $40 billion to Venezuela, whose public deficit amounted to 16 percent of gross domestic product last year.
Oil sales are crucial for Venezuela to get dollars in a country with rising debt and struggling with shortages of basic goods and high inflation.
Maduro vowed that the government would not cut popular housing programs and food subsidies that were already staples of the government policies under his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer last year.
Chavez supporters are a vital base for the government, which will face legislative elections in late 2015.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered his government Saturday to slash the budget of his oil-dependent and economically-weak nation, as crude prices plunge after OPEC held output steady.
The leftist leader called for a “substantial reduction” of the salaries of senior government officials, from state firms to ministries and his own wages.
While insisting that Venezuela “has the conditions to resist the falling oil price,” Maduro announced a commission tasked with cutting public spending.
Maduro said his economy minister, Rodolfo Marco Torre, would travel to China next week to “deepen economic and financing agreements” that would help Venezuela cover the oil revenue shortfall.
The Chinese government has already loaned $40 billion to Venezuela, whose public deficit amounted to 16 percent of gross domestic product last year.
Oil sales are crucial for Venezuela to get dollars in a country with rising debt and struggling with shortages of basic goods and high inflation.
Maduro vowed that the government would not cut popular housing programs and food subsidies that were already staples of the government policies under his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer last year.
Chavez supporters are a vital base for the government, which will face legislative elections in late 2015.
