2024-01-15 22:17:43
President Nicolás Maduro announced that starting February 1 the minimum income for Venezuelan workers will be $100, but there was no salary increase. In addition, he assured growth of the economy in 2023.
Caracas —
President Nicolás Maduro assured this Monday that starting February 1 there will be an adjustment to the “war bonus” that public employees receive, but he did not talk about an increase in the minimum wage, which still remains at 130 bolivars per month, the equivalent of $3.60 at the official rate.
The so-called “war bonus”, a kind of subsidy that began to be paid at the beginning of last year to public employees, retirees and pensioners, was adjusted to 60 dollars per month and the food bonus (Cestaticket), with which workers can buy food, remains at 40 dollars.
“I have decided to take the step of raising the indexed minimum comprehensive income of workers from $60 to $100, the minimum comprehensive income of workers as of February 1,” said Maduro, calling his announcement a “first push.” .
The last salary increase decreed by the Maduro government was in March 2022. At that time, the minimum salary was set at 130 bolivars, the equivalent of about 30 dollars per month at the official rate. Today, after the abrupt devaluation of the bolivar, it is barely equivalent to 3.60 dollars.
According to the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM), in November 2023 the family food basket reached $522.01, the equivalent of about 140 minimum wages.
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Other figures
According to Maduro, last year closed with economic growth of more than 5% and he attributed the losses that, he said, the country recorded to United States sanctions.
During his annual message to the nation, the president assured that Venezuela had “the highest growth in Latin America and the Caribbean” and stated that they project a growth in the Gross Domestic Product of 8%.
Although he recognized that inflation continues to be an “enemy to defeat,” Maduro asserted that his government achieved the goal of slowing down and controlling inflation, consolidating the “exchange balance,” as well as the “real and tangible” growth of the economy and national oil and non-oil production.
“We managed to reduce inflation by 33 points compared to the previous year, reaching the monthly inflation figure last December, which was 2.4% and I can say that in January of this year it indicates that we are going to have the lowest monthly figure of more than a decade and a half,” he said during his speech of more than four hours before the National Assembly with a pro-government majority.
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On the other hand, he highlighted that last year the country received 25% more tourism compared to 2022.
“Tourism is our secret weapon, because Venezuela is a power in that sense, given its diversity, beauty (…) for the first time in 10 years the figure of more than one million international arrivals is exceeded with 1,250,000 tourists, that “It had been reduced to zero due to the campaigns on YouTube, in the media,” he said.
He stressed that, with the increase in national production and commercial activity, the country registered a supply of 96.7%.
Losses due to sanctions
Maduro maintained that, as a result of the sanctions, Venezuela stopped producing 3,993 million barrels of oil, which “represented a loss for the country of 323,000 million dollars.” Furthermore, he held responsible all those people who demanded and implemented economic sanctions against his government.
“A true economic genocide has been committed against Venezuela (…) the total losses of the national economy, public and private sectors in terms of the fall in the Gross Domestic Product between 2015 and 2022 were 642,000 million dollars, a genocide, a massacre economic,” he said.
In addition, he questioned the sanctions and “persecution” against him and Venezuelan politicians and military personnel.
“The order from the Department of Justice that puts a ridiculous price on my head as head of state and other high officials is still ridiculously in force, the threat, the aggression, the imperial scheme that has not worked and will never work,” he insisted.
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In October, The United States relaxed its economic sanctions against Venezuela’s oil and gas sector for 6 months as an incentive to promote a pact between the ruling party and the opposition, while its spokespersons warned of deadlines for Caracas to keep its word on issues such as the release of political prisoners and the electoral rehabilitation of candidates from the opposition, something with which the Maduro government finally complied.
“Our tireless diplomacy has managed to make the US understand that sanctions also affect the global economy and in particular the North American economy and thus we have achieved conversations and negotiations that have taken some first steps in the right direction for the lifting of some licenses,” he added. Maduro, reiterating that the objective is the full lifting of the measures.
Behind the signing of an agreement between the Maduro government and the opposition Unitary Platform in October, the US issued general licenses that “temporarily” authorize some transactions involving the oil industry sector, but warned that the measures would be reversed “if commitments are not met.” stipulated”, among them the lifting of disqualifications and the release of political prisoners.
At the end of last month the United States government freed Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro, as part of an exchange for American citizens imprisoned in Venezuela. Maduro on Monday named Saab as president of the Venezuelan Productive Investment Center and gave him the task of “bringing investments.”
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