Venezuela Assumes $40 Oil, 0.5% Growth for Budget - Bloomberg

said. The government will propose a budget Oct. 15 based on anaverage oil price of $40 a barrel, economic growth of 0.5percent and inflation of 20 percent to 22 percent, Chavez saidlate yesterday on state television.

Forklift Oil Tank manufacturing facility.

The country, the biggest net oil exporter in the Americas,cut its budget in March after oil prices fell to almost half thebudgetary assumption of $60 a barrel and state oil companyPetroleos de Venezuela SA failed to boost output to a planned3.5 million barrels a day. Economists surveyed by Bloombergestimate that 2010 inflation will be 33 percent and the economywill grow 0.6 percent. “We need to be prudent in our calculations,” Chavez said.The country’s oil exports have fetched an average $52.62 abarrel this year.

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