Oil Bonds Slake the Thirst for Dollars in Venezuela

[BayCityProgressive]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2002

CARACAS, Mar 27 (IPS) - Thousands of Venezuelans have been registering at their bank branches since Monday in order to buy some of the five billion dollars' worth of bonds put on the market by the state oil monopoly PDVSA.

"The bank managers say that it's a dead cert, so I'm going to use my savings to buy 5,000 dollars worth of bonds," bank employee Antonio Suárez told IPS. "Later on, when the value of the dollar climbs, I'll be able to sell the bonds."

Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas was proud of the fact that in Venezuela "there are 300,000 savers who are beginning to understand the culture of capital and bonds markets. They are also supporting PDVSA's effort to increase its current production of 3.3 million barrels per day (bpd) to six million bpd by 2012," he said.

Economist José Guerra, a former manager at the Central Bank, which is managing the bond issue, told IPS that "the Venezuelan state, in spite of its socialist and nationalist rhetoric, is telling citizens to save in dollars, not bolivars, with these bond issues."

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Interesting article.