Friday, June 15, 2007 After the students walk out with nothing to say Venezuela keeps moving right along From todays El Universal we get some quick economic notes: Remember how the opposition was concerned that due to Venezuela's international reserves going down earlier this year as the government bought CANTV and transferred money to FONDEN the country might run out of dollars? They needn't have worried. The international reserves <http://economia.eluniversal.com/2007/06/15/eco_ava_reservas-venezolanas_15A885975.shtml>are now headed back up and increased $409 million this past week and now standing at $25.615 billion dollars. Remember how they also claimed that even the government sponsored low cost food retailer Mercal was in trouble with declining usage? Apparently that was all wasted worry too. <http://economia.eluniversal.com/2007/06/15/eco_art_ventas-diarias-de-me_319860.shtml>Turns out that between January and June 2007 sales at Mercal went up - no this is not a typo - a stunning 92%. The leading state in terms of purchases at Mercal? Zulia. They may have an opposition governor but they love Chavez's social programs. Lastly, if RCTV can't make a go of it on cable they can't blame Chavez. As Venezuela has boomed under his rule <http://economia.eluniversal.com/2007/06/15/eco_art_creciente-interes-en_320869.shtml>so too has subscription TV (cable and sattelite). Currently 1,373,873 homes in Venezuela have subscription TV. This comes to about 20% of all Venezuelan households. This is almost double the 778,904 households that had it in 2000. Between January and March of this year alone 167,930 homes got this service. Ooops, and almost forget. Tomorrow Chavez is inaugurating the third stage of the ThermoZulia electric plant bringing on line another 150 MegaWatts of capacity. At tomorrows inauguration he will also announce the construction of additional electric capacity that will see Zulia become completely independent of the national power grid and electricity generated in the Guyana region hydroelectric plants. The opposition is quiet, Chavez is free to govern, and Venezuela continues to prosper... Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development' Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H. Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar Caracas, Venezuela fax: 0212 5768274/0212 5777231 http//:centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve [EMAIL PROTECTED]
