Monday, May 03, 2004

And the Middle Class this Labor day?
Down the pits too, thank you!

Sunday 2, May 2004

Sometimes the small statistics are the most telling evidence. Friday's edition of El Nacional looks at the PC units sold in Venezuela in the last three years. The numbers are eloquent.


YearPC sold in VenezuelaPercentile decrease
2001 268 000----
2002  175 000- 34.7 %
2003 110 000 - 58.9 %


I am not sure that these numbers are a direct reflection of the decline of the middle class purchasing power, and numbers. But certainly in such a drop, home consumption and work place consumption of PC, we can find an indication that the jobs associated with computer usage are not expanding, that the middle class is not buying many computers.

Another piece of data in that article is quite telling. In 2001 the PC population of Venezuela placed it in fourth, just behind the much larger countries of South America (Brazil, Mexico and Argentina). Now Chile (with a lesser population) and Colombia have overtaken us, and Peru is breathing on our neck. Peru? Without half of the resources of Venezuela?

Clearly all the talk and efforts to "modernize" Venezuela by putting PC everywhere are falling quite short. It is very simple, no income.

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