Venezuelan business group meets with Maduro official

Senior executives from Venezuelan business chamber Fedecamaras met yesterday with a delegation headed by new National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez in an effort to move past a political deadlock and breathe life into the Opec country's economy.

Rodriguez, a member of President Nicolas Maduro's inner circle, replaced US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido as head of the legislative body on 5 January, following 6 December 2020 elections deemed fraudulent by most Western governments. Mainstream opposition parties continue to recognize Guaido and the previously elected assembly, but their voices are increasingly muted at home and abroad.

The rare meeting was requested by Rodriguez as chair of a special government commission to advance a dialogue between the public and private sectors.

"The objective of the visit was to articulate mechanisms of dialogue, with the purpose of finding solutions to the needs of the population, aggravated by the pandemic," Fedecamaras said.

The group urged the government to further loosen economic controls and pandemic restrictions, and improve basic services such as electricity, water and fuel supply. They also discussed Covid-19 vaccine procurement and access for workers.

A target of US oil sanctions since January 2019, Venezuela has an acute gasoline shortage, and diesel is beginning to run low as well after the US ended a sanctions exception of diesel swaps late last year.

Over the past year, the Maduro government has eased price, import and currency exchange controls, helping to reduce shortages of food and other consumer goods, although rising imports are beyond the reach of most Venezuelans.

While less than 10pc of the population is estimated to have newly authorized dollar accounts in local banks, dollar remittances from Venezuela's growing diaspora benefit many more. Up to 60pc of consumer transactions at the street level are now conducted in dollars, according to an unofficial central bank estimate.

In recent months, the government has quietly started to return agricultural assets such as dairy plants and sugar mills to private hands. Maduro's late predecessor Hugo Chavez had expropriated many Venezuelan businesses in a wave of nationalizations in 2005-11. Others, including petrochemical plants in eastern Venezuela, continue to operate in private hands.

Maduro's economic shift risks a backlash from more extreme factions of the ruling socialist party that oppose what they see as a disguised re-privatization of the economy.