More Caution As Gloom Hits Christmas Shopping In Venezuela

There were more bad tidings from the business community about the outlook for the economy as Consecomercio, which represents wholesalers and retailers, warned that consumer demand would likely drop by 13% during this year's festive season.

This, it said, would mark "an important fall from one year to another" after a 30% increase in the same period of 2007. Middle class Venezuelans are already out and about on the annual shopping spree, but there's notably less throwing around of cash and credit cards as if there was no tomorrow.

People in a shopping mall tended to take more than one look at what was in shop windows, comparing prices and then whipping out a pocket calculator to work out what was on and what wasn't. "I've got to be careful," said one youngish man, looking just a little harried. "I've got five little ones, and I don't now how I'm going to keep them all happy. It's not going to be much of a fiesta this year."

He used to have two jobs, but lost the second one waiting tables in an up-market restaurant a month back. "I'm out looking for another evening job but so it seems is everybody else," he lamented, "and in the meantime I've got to count the coins." And then came the classic of all time: "My wife doesn't understand me."

Another business group that represents small and medium-sized industrial companies, Conindustria, reiterated its oft-repeated message that the changing circumstances of the economy meant the only way out for the government was to count on the private sector. Conindustria President Eduardo Gómez Sigala complained that while industry had the potential to develop the country, "what there isn't, is support" from the authorities. "The government's policy is wrong."

The farming lobby, Fedeagro, latched on the President Hugo Chávez' penchant for helping out neighboring countries, a policy which some economists say he'll have to abandon if the economy slides on the back of dwindling world oil prices. Fedeagro President Gustavo Moreno cast doubt about a recent agreement under which Venezuela is lending financial assistance to food producers and companies in Nicaragua.

Moreno claimed that Venezuelan agroindustry was much more efficient but wasn't getting any backing from the government. Biotechnology had been developed and applied in 23 other countries, but Venezuela was falling behind, held in the grip of "the caprice of some bureaucrats."