Venezuela: Prices Subdued
Photograph by Paulo Fridman, Corbis
Oil wells rise from the placid waters of Lake Maracaibo, the center of Venezuela's petroleum industry and heart of the world's largest proven oil reserves, by OPEC's reckoning.
Venezuela's government has long used its oil wealth to buy popular support. At 8 cents per gallon (2 cents per liter), the price of gasoline in the South American nation is by far the cheapest in the world, according to data collected by GIZ, the German Society for International Cooperation.
The costs of Venezuela's massive domestic subsidies, $20 billion in 2010, have hindered economic growth. Venezuela spends more money on fuel subsidies than on education, and consumes the highest rate of energy per capita in Latin America. President Hugo Chávez has called for slowing domestic fuel consumption, but with elections approaching, popular subsidies are unlikely to fall.
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