Venezuela Needs $15-20b Yearly for Growth

Venezuela needs to dollarize its economy, seek $15 billion to $20 billion a year from abroad, and ease oil sector taxes to reverse the “disaster” of President Nicolas Maduro’s rule, according to an adviser to his main election rival, Reuters reported. Former state governor Henri Falcon, who will face Maduro in a May 20 presidential vote, has tapped a 48-year-old Venezuelan economist with Wall Street’s Torino Capital for ideas to turn around the OPEC nation’s recession-hit economy. “The person who has destroyed this nation’s economy is Nicolas Maduro,” Francisco Rodriguez said in an interview. “He is the one that has made an economy sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, with all the potential for being prosperous, into an economy of hunger.” Falcon, 56, defied an opposition boycott to run despite conditions critics say are rigged to ensure the ruling socialists win. He wants Rodriguez to head his economic team if he takes the presidency. Foremost among his ideas for stabilizing Venezuela’s state-led economy is ditching the devalued bolivar in favor of the US currency to “snap out” of hyperinflation.