Venezuela's Economy
In the past six years, Venezuela has gone from one of the worst economies in Latin America to the fourth largest, only surpassed by Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Since President Hugo Chavez took over in 1999, Venezuela has used revenues from its state-owned oil industry, Petroleos de Venezuela, to become the fastest growing economy in the Western Hemisphere. Despite a two month oil strike followed by a depression in 2002, Chavez and Venezuela have been able to recover through high oil prices and become one of the most influencial governements in Latin America. The petroleum sector accounts for nearly a third of the countries GDP and almost 80% of its net export earnings. Despite problems with inflation and unemployment, Chavez has still been able to use the earnings from the petroleum industry to promote socialists programs to help improve the life of all Venezuelan citizens.
