Sunday, January 10, 2010

Miguel Octavio is front page in El Nacional





As a consequence of the Friday devaluation, newspapers are running in circles trying to find people back from vacation to interview and comment on the economic implications.  Fortunately Miguel is at work and thus he made it to the front page of El Nacional, first edition (1).  Not to diminish his input, there were other noted analysts that the journalist could track down, but the fact of the matter is that through his blog and his job Miguel is becoming quite noticed and thus deserving of this spot.

El Nacional is by subscription only. I will put below in Spanish the portion of the article where Miguel was interviewed:
El analista financiero Miguel Octavio calcula que si el flujo de importaciones se mantiene igual al de 2009, con la nueva decisión 45,9% de los productos adquiridos fuera del país a 2,60 bolívares por dólar ­correspondientes a alimentos, medicinas, algunas remesas y maquinarias­ estarán sujetos a una inflación que no estará por debajo de 20,9%. El restante 54,1% de las compras en el exterior, que se realizan a través de Cadivi, presentarán alzas de precios superiores a 100%.

Octavio añade que cuando se estudia el comportamiento del consumo de los venezolanos se obtiene que 63% de los bienes que utiliza son comprados en el exterior y el otro 37% son servicios cuyos precios están controlados, como luz, alquileres y agua.


1) El Nacional runs two editions, the first one to be delivered nation wide and the second one for Caracas Metropolitan area.  They are printed one after the other but the lag for the first edition is enough to change te front page for the Caracas edition if needed.  I mention this because apparently Miguel does not appear in the Caracas edition but he does in the national edition, as I showed in the picture above. The Caracas edition carried something much more important for the Caracas "sifrinos"and "bolibourgeois": that now the credit card dollar for overseas travel is 4.3 and not 2.15.  It is now twice as expensive to travel. (and yet another example on why as long as the opposition leadership remains Caracas centered it will to beat Chavez, but I might be digressing...).  The Caracas edition article was also different than the one I read in San Felipe.

By the way, as usual, click to enlarge the picture.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:11 PM

    It's always good to see the msm quoting or sourcing news from bloggers that have taken it upon themselves to do the news work that they should have been doing all along..
    ... and front page no less!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel,

    Don't worry about it. El Presidente has all bases covered. He has announced that businesses which raise prices due to the devaluation have no reason to do so, and has threatened to seize them.

    “The bourgeois are already talking about how all prices are going to double and they’re closing their businesses to raise prices,” Chavez said in comments on state television during his weekly “Alo Presidente” program. “People, don’t let them rob you, denounce it, and I’m capable of taking over that business.”

    What a guy! He is truly a wizard in economics.

    ReplyDelete
  3. To supplement my previous comment, el Presidente proclaimed,

    I want the National Guard on the streets with the people to fight against speculation," he said to applause. "Publicly denounce the speculator and we will intervene in any business of any size."

    Chavez said subsidies introduced by his government, along with the stronger exchange rate for food and medicine would protect the poor from a bump in inflation.

    "This government protects and will continue to protect the weakest with investment and with special attention," he said.


    The beatings will continue until morale improves.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I certainly hope this doesn't paint a target on Miquel.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UCC

    Not to worry: the chavismo that matters is in Caracas and if they read el nacional they read the Caracas edition. Like the opposition, chavismo is now Caracas centered. Only Chavez still looks hard at the electoral map of the whole country, but he also gets the Caracas edition that he probably reads, contrary to many of his incompetent underlings.

    ReplyDelete

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