Economy
President of Venezuela's National Economic Council Efraín Velásquez said that Venezuelans' real income next year is expected to drop 15 percent, as a result of the inflation's upward trend.

Velásquez considers that Venezuela's consumer price index will rise above 30 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, members of the Venezuelan Council of Industry (Conindustria) expect that the inflation rate will climb to 35.1 percent at the end of 2010, according to a survey made to members of the industrial sector.

Meanwhile, Carlos Larrazábal, the president of Conindustria, said that the manufacturing sector will be cut by 6 percent at the end of 2009, He clarifies that Venezuelan industry has not only been affected by the international crisis. Larrazabal considers that the worrying situation is the result of the decisions taken by Hugo Chávez's government in recent years.