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Foreign Exchange crisis to intensify
According to a source in Venezuela's Central Bank, the country's international reserves have dwindled to $21 billion -- less than half the reserves of Colombia, an economy of the same size. Worse yet, $12 billion of Venezuela's dwindling reserves is in the form of gold that is claimed by China as security for more than $30 billion in loans made in the last two years. Because Venezuela is not keeping up with oil deliveries to service that Chinese debt, the gold cannot be touched.Another $7.5 billion of the reserves is in the form of bonds issued by Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua, a source in the Central Bank told me. Apparently that amount used to be held in U.S. Treasury bonds, but the regime traded these for useless paper from some of the region's most insolvent countries. These bonds cannot be liquidated for cash because they are worth less than their face value, making their sale illegal under Venezuelan law. Thus, what is left in the bank is less than a half-billion dollars, which would cover the cost of about two weeks worth of imports. So shortages of essential goods will worsen in the days ahead. Caveat here: This is by Roger Noriega, who saw Hamas and Hezbollah gathering at the junction of Brazil and Vzla. Somewhat ummmmm.... crazy. Still the foreign exchange numbers kinda match other sources. Posted by: Shipman 2014-02-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=385894 |