Flag and Facts

Venezuela’s economy has come and gone throughout the years, but it has always relied on petroleum. The general total GDP is $269.068 billion and the GDP per capita is around $7,704 which is ranked 156 out of all other countries. The GDP in Venezuela is composed of 5% agriculture, 37.2% industry, and 51.7% services. Venezuela’s economy is mostly based on exploitation and production of petroleum. Venezuela relies on it so much that it has become a problem. They started to rely on it so much that when oil prices fluctuated, the whole country suffered pushing them more into debt and raising inflation rates. This caused them to spend more money exporting the oil than actually selling it. The reason why they rely on oil is because Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves with about 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves most located near Maracaibo. The economy is significantly struggling even though they have so much oil because they don’t have the money for the machinery and they don’t have enough people to man the oil machinery.  This is because of a large increase in emigration because the economy is so poor. So poor in fact that their current debt is about 4.3 trillion dollars. Venezuela’s principal exports are crude petroleum and iron ore. It imports mainly plastic and food products such as corn and soybean oil. Venezuela also has a set record of inflation that nobody could beat at 929,790%. It was caused by the money used to print money at the central bank which led them into a hyperinflation spiral. Luckily, the problem is lessening with a still high, but comparatively low rate of around 71% in 2024. Overall, Venezuela is a country that relies heavily on petroleum oil to drive their economy and that has led to one of the biggest downfalls in history.