The ministries of Planning and Finance are building the scenarios to estimate the Venezuelan budget for 2008.

Macroeconomic premises such as crude oil price, exchange rate, inflation, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are currently under analysis.

Assessments comprise six oil-related scenarios. The first scenario estimates the oil price at USD 30 per barrel, with other scenarios where the oil price is calculated at USD 33, USD 35, USD 40, USD 45, and USD 50. This time, the experts are presenting a high-price scenario, as opposed to previous fiscal years.

Anyway, official sources said experts are likely to use again conservative values, as they did in previous budgets.

In the 2007 budget, the oil price was estimated at USD 29 per barrel. The oil price currently averages USD 59.22, for a USD 30 surplus.

Oil output levels are yet under consideration. In 2006 and 2007 budgets, oil production was put at 3.4 million barrels a day. However, last November, when output was 3.2 million bpd, Venezuela cut production to 2.47 million bpd, under OPEC.