The official unemployment rate today is 7.9%, but youth unemployment and underemployment are much higher. This is not surprising, given Venezuela’s mediocre growth performance. Since 1999 – and despite very high oil prices – the economy has grown by only 3.2% per year on average. During this period, Latin America as a whole has recorded 4% average annual growth, pulled by fast-growing countries like Peru, where annual GDP has been rising by more than 5.5%.
CommentsThe crime problem is even worse. Venezuela's murder rate – at 67 per 100,000 people – is among the world’s highest, and five times what it was before Chávez came to power. By contrast, the murder rate in Brazil is 26 per 100,000, and “only” 18 in Mexico, despite all of that country's drug-related violence.
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