STATISTICS VENEZUELA: GDP, OIL RESERVES, REFINING CAPACITY, CRUDE PRODUCTION, EXPORTS, EXCHANGE RATE, CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, HOUSING EXPENDITURE

Other graphs on public spending on housing may misleadingly show lines with an upward slope, but it is for failure to adjust for other factors. Namely, this graph uses constant Venezuelan Bolivar currency (year 2000), and adjusts for population growth, depicted by the long-line plot. The bars represent the average yearly public spending per capita on housing for the nine years previous to Hugo Chavez's administration, then for the six years of Chavez's administration.

The short-line plot emphasizes and quantifies what is visually clear from the bars: Chavez's administration has been spending only two thirds of what his predecessors were spending.

For Chavez's administration to make up for the difference in 2005 and merely *match*

what preceeding adminstrations were spending on housing, it would have to increase its 2004 spending by 1,130%! Unfortunately, referring back to the long-line plot, it is clear that as years go by Chavez's administration is *decreasing* an already small spenditure.

The spending numbers were found at http://www.sisov.mpd.gov.ve ; the population numbers were found at or extrapolated from http://www.opec.org/library/Annual%20statistical%20Bulletin/pdf/AB002003.pdf