Monday, June 23, 2008
File this one under "good while it lasts".
From today's news services we see Venezuela is about to have the highest per capita income in all of Latin America:
Feel free to read the rest of the article.
All I can say, beside the obvious observation that Venezuelans living better in and of itself is good news, is I guess this is what $130 a barrel oil does for you.
But of course the REAL question is what will happen when the price of oil goes back down. Has Venezuela done enough to prepare itself for that eventuality?
From previous posts I think you know that for me the answer to that is a resounding no.
One final observation on this (for me at least) is i guess Chile isn't all its cracked up to be. I've never been to Chile but I've been to Venezuela many times. In Venezuela a significant number of people are poor and a great many more have standards of living that would be unacceptably low to many of us. Despite its high rates of growth the hillside slums are all still there.
So I guess Chile must have lots of hill side slums of its own. And I also guess it hasn't gotten nearly as far as a lot of people try to say it has, in spite of however many sparkling skyscrapers Santiago has.
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Venezuela: Latin America's Richest?
Venezuela will replace Chile as Latin America's GDP per capita champion and Argentina as the region's third-largest economy.
BY CHRONICLE STAFF
Venezuela will replace Chile as the country with the region's highest GDP per capita and Argentina as the region's third-largest economy, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Venezuela's GDP per capita is estimated to reach $11,933 this year. That's higher than the estimated figure for Chile of $10,126.
The IMF estimates also show that Venezuela's GDP is set to reach $334.7 billion this year, while that of Argentina will likely end up at $323.8 billion.
Feel free to read the rest of the article.
All I can say, beside the obvious observation that Venezuelans living better in and of itself is good news, is I guess this is what $130 a barrel oil does for you.
But of course the REAL question is what will happen when the price of oil goes back down. Has Venezuela done enough to prepare itself for that eventuality?
From previous posts I think you know that for me the answer to that is a resounding no.
One final observation on this (for me at least) is i guess Chile isn't all its cracked up to be. I've never been to Chile but I've been to Venezuela many times. In Venezuela a significant number of people are poor and a great many more have standards of living that would be unacceptably low to many of us. Despite its high rates of growth the hillside slums are all still there.
So I guess Chile must have lots of hill side slums of its own. And I also guess it hasn't gotten nearly as far as a lot of people try to say it has, in spite of however many sparkling skyscrapers Santiago has.
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