CARACAS, (Reuters) – The man President Nicolas Maduro named as public enemy No. 1 in Venezuela’s “economic war” says a discredited state-driven growth model, not private enterprise, is to blame for the OPEC nation’s soaring consumer prices and chronic product shortages.
Maduro has refused to loosen state controls over the economy introduced during the 14-year rule of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, and this week ordered military occupations of stores and aggressive inspections reminiscent of his predecessor’s style.
“We profoundly disagree that this model, which has failed the world over, can be successful in Venezuela,” said Jorge Roig, head of the umbrella business group Fedecamaras. “It makes me ashamed. I feel we’re a bit of a laughing stock round the world,” he told Reuters, citing a World Bank ‘Doing Business’ study that ranked Venezuela 181 of 189 countries.
Seven months after Maduro won a vote to replace Chavez, who died of cancer, economic troubles are dominating the national agenda. Annual inflation has hit 54 percent and shortages of basics are afflicting Venezuelans across the political divide. Maduro says U.S.-backed political opponents are deliberately sabotaging the OPEC member’s economy by hiking prices, hoarding products and siphoning away much-needed foreign currency.
“I have proof – Jorge Roig is directing the economic war,” Maduro told Venezuelans earlier this month, naming two other business groups with him and accusing the Fedecamaras president of a 25-year relationship with the U.S. Embassy.
At an interview in his office in Caracas, Roig, 57, said he did not take the comments personally but rather as part of the continued “demonization” of private enterprise in Venezuela.