Projected to drop 3.5% in manufacturing
Conindustria reiterated that the capacity to produce is limited by the lack of U.S. dollars
The sector recorded a decline of 1.1% during the first quarter of this year, as reported BCV (Nicola Rocco)
"The government has been insisting on the need to increase productivity. Now that does not have the dollars needed to import. If that speech was accompanied by the appropriate content for the industry ... But we can not increase production of goods and services expropriation, confiscation, with threats. "
The sentence is Gomez Eduardo Sigal, president of Conindustria, who said that to close this year, the manufacturing sector registered a contraction which can vary between 3 and 3.5%.
The results of 2009 strengthened the trend that the industry has been living for three quarters. The cooling of the economy in general, mixed with the policies of transition to socialism, have slowed their growth.
It may be recalled that according to statistics from the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), manufacturing was a decrease of 1.1% between January and March this year. During this period, the sector's involvement in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 15.8%. In 2008 the growth was 1.3%.
The industry is fenced. Sigal Gomez insisted that there are companies that accumulate delays in the settlement of foreign exchange up to 180 days. Some, "or almost all, use the swap market, but the total of how many do not quantified. "The capacity (to produce) is limited by the lack of foreign exchange," he said.
"We have an economy which imports everything we consume. No economy supports this. The deterioration will continue because there will be inflation and supply. We will see that the wage increase will not offset the rising costs," he said.
Unemployment is another of the realities that worries Conindustria, the president wished to recall that the private sector is the major generator of jobs in the country. Sigal Gomez said that "when the process deepens, the government endorse the responsibility of the productive sector. But the reality show the product of poor policies."
maguzzi@eluniversal.com