LatinNews Daily - 27 July 2023

* The Observatorio Venezolano de Finanzas (OVF), an independent Venezuelan economic think tank, has said that Venezuela has entered a recession following two consecutive quarters of negative growth. According to the OVF’s calculations, there was a quarterly contraction of 6.3% in economic activity in the second quarter of 2023, which followed a 7.6% contraction in the first quarter. The OVF stated that “this drop in the level of economic activity occurred in the context of increasing oil production, which could not compensate for observed declines in factors which determine the behaviour of aggregated internal demand”. The OVF attributed this drop in demand to low wages and to “a reserve requirement policy of 75% which inhibits any financing to the economic sectors which could improve the economy in the short term”.