By Misión Verdad – Apr 9, 2026
On April 8, Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, presented to the country a statement containing data and announcements fundamentally related to the economy.
The presentation centered on a sincere and compelling assessment of recent years’ economic and political dynamics, highlighting key national account indicators regarding the effects of sanctions on national income, Social Security financing, and the status of public-sector salaries and pensions.
She announced a series of measures to address these challenges, indicating the need to avoid repeating past mistakes and establishing a shift in perspective in state administration, economic policy, and the approach to economic sectors beyond the government.
The loss of the resource base
The acting president highlighted a difficult truth that illustrates the dimensions of the country’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to 2012.
It is essential to clarify that, although the annualized nominal GDP has recorded a significantly higher growth percentage, the real GDP figure she referenced was calculated relative to the size of the national economy in 2012.
She explained that by the end of 2025, the real GDP was only 35.7% of the GDP in 2012. This suggests that the Venezuelan economy is 64.3% smaller than in 2012, and thus generates less real net income.
The declining trend in real GDP has been clearly noticeable since 2016, the year when the US-imposed sanctions from 2014 and 2015 started to take shape, when the US government published its first laws and executive orders that have been the “legal” pillars of a list of more than 1000 unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela.
According to an image shown by the acting president, the year of the peak decline in real GDP was 2020, with a drop of 24.9%. Since then, moderate growth has been observed, which suggests that the economy is recovering, but it is still far from reaching its historical peak and point of greatest prosperity.
Rodríguez explained that the decline in real GDP is directly linked to the collapse in national export revenues. Between 2012 and 2020, export value dropped by 91%, meaning Venezuela earned only 9% in 2020 of what it earned in 2012. This is clearly tied to sanctions on the oil sector and the broader economic blockade.
Another image shown during the speech suggests that from 2022 to 2025, the total exports barely surpassed $93 billion, a figure still lower than 2012’s revenue alone.
The image shows that although the income from oil and derivative exports, which are the fundamental basis of the national budget, have recovered in recent years, they are overwhelmingly lower than in 2012, the year the current Organic Labor Law (LOTTT) was approved.
Inflation and loss of purchasing power of wages
Delcy Rodríguez bluntly pointed out a paradox that exists in the minimum wage of the workers. On one hand, the national minimum wage has recovered to an equivalent value from $30 in October 2021 to its current value of $190. That recovery has been in nominal terms. But, simultaneously, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has severely deteriorated.
A graph that she presented illustrates that in June 2018, a comprehensive income increase was granted to workers, and subsequently, inflation pulverized the real purchasing power achieved in that adjustment, down to a dramatic 0.1% in less than a year, in April 2019.
She added that in 2022 another “unsupported” salary adjustment was made, which triggered monthly inflation.
The premise is very simple: in the case of the public sector, salary increases cannot be made without strengthening the state’s revenue base. Otherwise, the issuance of bolívars is resorted to as a mechanism for financing the fiscal deficit. This implies an increase in the money supply in the national currency, accelerating inflation.
Moreover, even substantial private-sector wages lose real value if the monetary issuance to finance public salaries intensifies. She pointed out that this was palpable in 2018 and 2022. There are lessons learned and practices that should not be repeated.
She stressed the urgent need to break this cycle and pursue structural correction.
The pension system
The acting president provided data on pressing situations in the pension system. Since the enactment of the Pension Protection Law, the private sector has increased its contribution, but it only represents 9% of the resource base to finance the system.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan State pays 91% of the pension payments.
A clearly concerning fact is the number of contributors versus the number of retirees. In the country, there are 5.3 million active workers contributing and 6.2 million retirees and pensioners.
This illustrates several factors: firstly, the current system is structurally unviable as there are more dependents on the system than contributors to support it. Secondly, there is a clear gap left by the demographic loss (due to migration) of the economically active population. Thirdly, there is a significant workforce not reflected in this data, which is the workforce in the informal sector and which therefore does not contribute to Social Security.
Announcements and measures
Rodríguez indicated that on May 1, she will announce a “responsible” increase in the minimum wage for the workers.
Considering the data and reflections that she presented, this suggests that it will be a realistic increase, in line with the modest recovery of national revenues, without being leveraged through the issuance of bolívars.
She also stated that the current pension model “is not sustainable,” suggesting a future restructuring of the social protection system.
In that vein, she announced the establishment of the Labor Dialogue Commission that encompasses the ongoing Labor and Social Security Constituent Assembly, with participation from the state, the private sector, workers, and pensioners. The purpose of this is to move towards the construction of a new labor convention and a social security system based on national realities.
Furthermore, she signed the Organic Law for the Acceleration and Optimization of Administrative Procedures and Processes. This marks a milestone in the simplification of the bureaucracy. In her speech, she explained that the new regulation provides the government with direct legal tools to dismantle critical knots in public administration, aiming for greater efficiency of the state.
Regarding tax reform, she stated, “I am making arrangements to immediately launch the National Economic Council to receive proposals for a new tax model for Venezuela.”
She called for the model to be more efficient, as well as to promote technological platforms that would allow Venezuela to move to a “higher level.”
A reform of the tax system is expected to contribute to its modernization, reduction of evasion, targeting of levies in sectors that do not compromise growth and employment, and a higher efficiency of public finance.
The acting president stated that the recovery of blocked resources, which belong to the people of Venezuela, will be immediately allocated to rehabilitating basic infrastructure (electricity, water, roads, schools, hospitals) and to productive investment, “which would guarantee sufficient income for better pensions and workers’ earnings.”
She also indicated that there are 500,000 “frozen” or off-market homes in the country. These homes may be incorporated into the real estate market to facilitate access to rental housing, especially for young people and new families who do not have the immediate capacity to buy.
In this regard, she requested the National Assembly to reform the laws related to the real estate market, to provide for new guarantees to incentivize activities, including guarantees for proprietors and tenants.
The US sanctions
A central factor in Rodríguez’s speech was the issue of the unilateral coercive measures against the national economy. Once again, she addressed the government of the United States, highlighting the severity and impact that the illegal measures continue to have.
Rodríguez announced the launch of a social mobilization across the country, in the form of a “pilgrimage,” which gives a political profile to referring to the sanctions as an inertia that compromises the stabilization and improvement of major socioeconomic variables.
The mobilization is scheduled to begin on April 19, Venezuela’s Independence Day, and conclude on May 1, International Workers’ Day.
This pilgrimage has clear symbolic connotations. It will cross various parts of Venezuela before ending in Caracas.
From the perspective of the national government, the complete lifting of sanctions could mean an increase in the resource base to support the commitments of the Venezuelan state and leverage the new reforms that could arise in the labor convention and the country’s pension system.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SH
Misión Verdad
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
