Venezuelan Government Promises to Overcome Economic Crisis

After the economic recovery plan of 2015 failed to show results, the government of President Nicolas Maduro said it is prepared to ease the crisis with a "Bolivarian Economic Agenda".

Vice President Aristobulo Istúriz said the government will avoid a "neoliberal" solution to the economic crisis, adding that he was confident that the new plan will repair the national economy, which is in an official state of 'emergency'.

"We are obliged to build a productive model that allows us to generate wealth and simultaneously maintain and deepen the gains of the people," he told a group of entrepreneurs.

Istúriz and several members of the executive branch have started a round of interviews and meetings with entrepreneurs from all over the country to give more details about the agenda, and to ask for confidence from the private sector in the new plan.

"We have to find a solution other than the neoliberal," said Istúriz, who also chairs the National Economic Council, established to address the situation.

After declaring a state of economic emergency, "the idea is that we are not studying things much, because there are already enough studies, enough diagnoses. The time to take the test has reached us," he said.

The Venezuelan economy, which depends almost entirely on the sale of oil, is deeply affected by falling international prices. Istúriz says it has led the country to lose 70 percent of its income.

According to official figures released on Friday, inflation in the first nine months of 2015 stood at 108.7 percent. At the end of the third quarter, the country's annualized inflation surged to 141.5 percent. The data is the worst recorded in Venezuela's history.

The National Economic Council, made up of ministers, entrepreneurs and local leader, will be formally inaugurated on Tuesday.

Details of the new agenda are framed in the Economic Emergency Decree, which was declared on Friday and would give the executive powers including accessing funds and intervening in companies to boost production.

The decree is still awaiting approval from parliament.

Henrique Capriles, an opposition leader and governor of Miranda state, criticized the Economic Emergency Decree arguing that it involves "giving more power to those responsible of the crisis."