- published: 27 Feb 2016
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The economy of Venezuela is largely based on the petroleum sector and manufacturing. Revenue from petroleum exports accounts for about 18% of the country's GDP and roughly 95% of total exports.Venezuela is the fifth largest member of OPEC by oil production. From the 1950s to the early 1980s the Venezuelan economy experienced a steady growth that attracted many immigrants. During the collapse of oil prices in the 1980s the economy contracted. With high oil prices and rising government expenditures, Venezuela's economy grew by 9% in 2007 but is expected to have shrunk by 2.9% in 2009 and further in 2010. Venezuela has one of the highest inflation rates in the world averaging 29.1% in 2010, according to the CIA world fact book. According to Central Bank of Venezuela, the government received from 1998 to 2008 around 325 billion USD through oil production and export, and according to the International Energy Agency, to June 2010 has production of 2.2 million of barrels per day, 800,000 of which go to the United States of America.
Venezuela (i/ˌvɛnɨˈzweɪlə/ VEN-ə-ZWAY-lə), officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela [repuˈβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈswela]), is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south. Its northern coastline of roughly 2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi) includes numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, and in the north east borders the northern Atlantic Ocean. Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba and the Leeward Antilles lie near the Venezuelan coast. Venezuela's territory covers around 916,445 square kilometres (353,841 sq mi) with an estimated population of 29,105,632. Venezuela is considered a state with extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the Orinoco River Delta in the east.