Venezuela’s Democratic Socialist President: Our Economic Model Has ‘Failed’

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro admitted on Tuesday that the economic models of his democratic socialist regime have “failed.”

“The production models we’ve tried so far have failed and the responsibility is ours, mine and yours,” Maduro told his United Socialist Party-controlled congress, AFP reports.

“Enough with the whining,” he said later, AFP reports. “We need to produce with or without (outside) aggression, with or without blockades, we need to make Venezuela an economic power. … No more whining, I want solutions comrades!”

Maduro’s admission of failure comes amid an inflation rate that reached a stunning 33,151% in July and predictions by the International Monetary Fund that the country’s GDP will shrink by double-digits again, this time by a devastating 18%.

As AFP explains, Venezuela’s economic collapse follows the socialist regime’s aggressive nationalization of various key industries and sectors, including cement and steel, supermarket chains, and hundreds of other businesses. Maduro has also imposed price controls in various industries and has even taken the dramatic step of marching the army into the streets to make sure that shops aren’t defying price limits.

Maduro told his congress that he expects that it will take “about two years to reach a high level of stability” and experience “the first symptoms of new and economic prosperity, without for one second affecting social security and protection.”

Venezuela’s revenues are almost entirely dependent on oil production, which has dropped to just 1.5 million barrels a year, less than half the amount produced in 2008. Meanwhile, AFP notes, industry is operating at just 30% and the farming industry is only managing to supply a quarter of national consumption.