China loans make Venezuela’s outlook more precarious
Patience is wearing thin among both China and other trading partners
Venezuela's economic forecast continues to worsen. The government is struggling to pay back interest on loans to China—the terms of which were relaxed back in June 2016—and its dependency on oil exports to the Asian superpower have become "a question of survival", as one analyst puts it. Along with Russia, China has lent Venezuela over $77bn—including $250m the Development Bank of China approved on 5 July to increase petroleum development—but Caracas has exhausted its debtors' and expropriated investors' patience, and some have started to seek refund via the seizure of cargoes shipping PDVSA oil. Several Venezuelan oil cargoes have been seized in the Dutch Caribbean islands in the past two y
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