海角大神

鈥� A version of this post ran on the author's blog,聽. The views expressed are the author's own.

For those of us living in Venezuela, you only need a short stroll聽to your local market to see the current state of our economy. However, there鈥檚 always the need to have some sort of statistical confirmation.

Too bad聽the Central Bank (BCV)聽, at least publicly.

What started last December聽has turned into a complete blackout of information. The last BCV report on inflation was from May. Yes, there have been alleged leaks on the听补苍诲听聽numbers, but the BCV has neither confirmed nor denied them.

Those are聽not the only figures being kept under wraps. The last scarcity rate report is from March, and no recent gross domestic product (GDP) or balance of payments numbers have been released either.聽聽that the BCV, along with the Finance Ministry and the National Statistics Institute (INE), are keeping official statistics hidden in recent years, making difficult to analyze the state of our economy.

What鈥檚 the response of the central government to all of this? In three words: NO. BIG. DEAL.

PSUV Deputy Ricardo Sanguino, who聽is the head of the National Assembly鈥檚 Finance Commission,聽聽to release those indicators in a certain deadline. They can do so whenever they please.

But the Central Bank is still considering alternatives. [Last] month,聽聽that both the BCV and the INE would change the methodology to measure inflation from聽. Also, the newest member of the BCV board of directors, Sohail Hern谩ndez,聽to stop releasing the indicators. Instead, those who are interested in knowing those figures would have go to the BCV in person and formally request them.

As we enter a new month with聽no major changes to the government鈥檚 economic policies [], the official line of blocking access to public information is still on the march.聽.

鈥� Gustavo Hernandez Acevedo is a writer for聽, the place for opposition-leaning-but-not-insane analysis of the Venezuelan political scene since 2002