Photo: EFE / Miguel Gutierrez
The sociologist and researcher Luis Pedro España indicated that 18% of Venezuelan households were affected by the increase in gasoline prices. This is indicated by the data from the National Survey of Living Conditions in Venezuela that concluded in May 2021.
“18% of households in Venezuela have at least one private vehicle. The highest level of households with private vehicles was close to 27% in the years of the last oil boom in the entire history of Venezuela,” the professor said in an interview with Radio Union.
He said that the impact on more households is related to the transport sectornot only for fuel, but for spare parts, lubricants, among others.
Spain also added that the governments, not only that of Nicolás Maduro, but all those who have tried to be honest regarding the price of gasoline, have taken care that the measure does not directly impact the cost of public transport.
Economic increase in 2022
The researcher said that 18% of households has more capacity to take advantage of any increase in economic dynamism in the country.
“These households have more possibilities of getting a job, of getting contracts, of being able to sell things, of being able to reactivate their domestic economy. Because those are the homes where the greatest capacities are concentrated”, he explained.
“We hope that in 2022 this economic growth will continue, which has a thousand and one quotation marks that must be put on it, because it is an economic growth that will be impossible to maintain over time. It is concentrated in very specific economic sectors. The capacity for the spillover effect of this growth is going to be very small because of the huge inequality. But we expect a reduction in poverty because that 18% of households, of which an important part was in a condition of income poverty, will possibly be left out of income poverty,” he said.
Spain indicated that the fuel supply in the country currently it does not reach 170,000 barrels a day. He compared that for mobility levels between 2010 and 2013, up to 700,000 barrels per day were consumed.
He stated that the country is in a price truthing process Because circumstances have forced it.
“At some point there was talk of a dual country, a country that lives in dollars and another that lives in bolivars. I think that border is already being erased, if it is not already erased, since there is a transparent, daily exchange rate. The reference to the dollar is due to inflationary issues. So nobody speaks in bolivars, everyone charges in dollars, even if you pay in bolivars”, he explained.
Measures are subsidies
The researcher believes that the Venezuelan authorities will implement subsidy measures for everything related to public transport and for the sector that needs to move. He opined that the next chapter of price sincerity will be electricity And then there will be the issue of water.
“That’s coming. As other services are also being sincere, in some cases more than sincere, as is the case of urban sanitation. I think that in public services you have to pay to have a service, hopefully that gives the consumer power to claim, ”he said.
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