LatinNews Daily - 04 September 2018

Venezuela: Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has announced that the new petrol fuel pricing scheme will come into effect in the country’s eight border states starting from 3 September. Petrol prices are heavily subsidised in Venezuela, but last month President Maduro said that his government will start removing some of these subsidies and slowly allow petrol prices to rise to international levels in Venezuela in a bid to reduce government spending. President Maduro has also said that the removal of petrol subsidies would help to combat the smuggling of petrol fuel across Venezuela’s borders, which produces significant losses for the Venezuelan state. But the announcements sparked concerns that there could be public protests against the petrol price increases given that any increase can only further stoke inflation in a country that is already suffering from hyperinflation (it is estimated that petrol prices could increase 700-fold). Nonetheless Maduro has said that the state-owned oil firm, Pdvsa, will implement a new petrol fuel price scheme in the border states, with the national Bolivarian guard (GNB) tasked with enforcing compliance with the new pricing scheme.

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