How much worse can it get for Venezuela?
The country's oil industry would suffer badly in a default scenario
THIS oil downturn has inflicted damage far and wide. But nowhere has it hit harder than in Venezuela, which is careering towards a possible default at the sovereign level or at its state oil company PdV. It scarcely matters which: either would inflict a heavy toll on the country’s oil industry. The descent into economic chaos has been relentless. Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy was already in perilous shape with close to $100-a-barrel oil thanks to years of wasteful mismanagement of tens of billions of petrodollars. With oil at $40/b, the country’s finances are melting down. The IMF expects the economy to shrink by 8% this year after a 5.7% decline last year. If the IMF’s 2017 GDP forecast
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