Venezuela

South America’s most economically troubled country, facing fears of a debt default amid tumbling oil prices and a cash crunch, has been thrown a lifeline by its largest lender, China, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Asian giant loosened repayment terms on the nearly $50 billion in loans it has granted Venezuela since 2007, according to Venezuela’s Official Gazette. And President Nicolás Maduro said in a speech last week that his finance minister, Rodolfo Marco, would soon travel to China to try to secure new loans. Mr.

South America’s most economically troubled country, facing fears of a debt default amid tumbling oil prices and a cash crunch, has been thrown a lifeline by its largest lender, China, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Asian giant loosened repayment terms on the nearly $50 billion in loans it has granted Venezuela since 2007, according to Venezuela’s Official Gazette. And President Nicolás Maduro said in a speech last week that his finance minister, Rodolfo Marco, would soon travel to China to try to secure new loans. Mr.

In the famous Big Mac index of global currency values against the US dollar, Venezuela makes a surprise entrance as the third most expensive place in the world to eat a burger, the Financial Times reported. This unexpected finding can be explained by two factors: the array of fixed exchange rates set by a country that has to import almost everything apart from oil and the rampant inflation that has pushed up prices more than 60 per cent in 2014. For investors in the country’s debt, it is not good news.

Although Venezuela has the largest energy reserves in the world, its deteriorating economy has forced Nicolás Maduro, the president, to slash imports to cover foreign debt payments amid a severe hard currency crunch that has already produced shortages of almost everything, from toilet paper to medical supplies, the Financial Times reported. “It is hard to believe, but there are worse shortages in Venezuela than there are in Syria,” said Moisés Naím, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

President Nicolas Maduro said Venezuela could meet all its obligations to bondholders, as he sought to quell market fears that the Socialist-run country may opt to default when $5 billion of its foreign debt falls due for repayment next month, Reuters reported. Fears of a possible default had heightened, with bond yields spiking, after the publication of an article by two pro-opposition economists that suggested an orderly default could ultimately help the slumping economy of a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

After a year in office, Nicolás Maduro has made little headway in correcting the economic distortions bequeathed by his Comandante. Since Hugo Chávez died in March last year, Venezuelans have suffered rapidly deteriorating economic conditions, from a yawning budget deficit to galloping inflation and widespread shortages of goods, from milk to toilet paper, the Financial Times reported. But the people have pushed back.

Funeral home director Carlos Bianchi's dilemma over how much to charge for his coffins goes a long way in illustrating the economic woes plaguing both Argentina and Venezuela, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Argentine government's currency devaluation last month, which helped spur a global selloff in emerging-market currencies, also sent prices soaring here. What confounds Mr. Bianchi's calculation is that he must use an unsteady and weakening currency, the peso, to buy imported parts for his wares.

A Venezuelan lender that bid more than €1 billion beat out three big Spanish rivals and three U.S.-based investment firms in an auction to buy a nationalized Spanish bank, the country's bank-bailout fund announced Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Banesco Grupo Financiero Internacional and its Spanish unit Banco Etcheverría SA offered to pay €1.003 billion ($1.38 billion) to buy NCG Banco SA, the largest bank in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.

Venezuela devalued its currency against the dollar on Friday, a move made by the government of ailing President Hugo Chávez to ease deepening shortages, but is also expected to stoke inflation and further weaken the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The bolívar—whose official name is the Strong Bolívar—was slashed by nearly a third of its value to 6.3 per dollar from a previous rate of 4.3 per dollar, Finance Minister Jorge Giordani told a news conference.

Venezuela could default on its debt as early as the second half of 2013 if President Hugo Chavez wins re-election next month and fails to shore up the oil- producing nation’s “increasingly fragile” balance sheet, Morgan Stanley said, Bloomberg reported. One “tipping point” could be the $4.3 billion in external debt payments that come due between August and November 2013, Morgan Stanley analyst Daniel Volberg wrote in a note to clients today.