Venezuela economic withers from December oil crisis

www.zwire.com By:Aurora Sentinel wire affiliates February 18, 2003

Venezuela's gross domestic product shrank by 8.9 percent in 2002, due mainly to a strike that virtually shut down the crucial oil industry in December, the Central Bank reported Saturday. This decline ended a two-year period of economic growth, with increases in GDP of 3.2 percent in 2000 and 2.7 percent in 2001.

The 2002 decline surpassed that of 1999, when the country's economy contracted 7.2 percent because of falling international prices for oil, Venezuela's principal export.

During the fourth quarter of 2002, Venezuela's GDP fell 16.7 percent, hurt by the "partial paralysis" of the vital petroleum sector, according to the Central Bank's report.

The Bank said the oil sector experienced a decline of 25.5 percent during the last quarter of 2002.