Economy
Jesse Chacón, the Minister of Science, Technology and Intermediate Industries announced that in the last two months of this year, the amount of vehicles assembled in the country will be higher than the figures reported in November and December 2008, which were 7,953 and 8,903 units, respectively.

Chacón said that the Venezuelan economy will grow next year. He cited as example that "some people said that all car assembly plants working in Venezuela were leaving Venezuela. At the end of 2009, they are still operating in Venezuela and many more want to start operations in our country."

He added that "executives from Renault and Fiat, that left Venezuela, called me to say that they want to start assembling cars in Venezuela."

Car sales plummet
The sales of new cars totaled 116,458 units in the January-October 2009 period, a 50.6 percent decline from the same period in 2008, the Venezuelan Automotive Chamber (Cavenez) said, as reported by AFP.

According to Cavenez, 92,198 out of the total of sold cars throughout the year (21.6 percent less than in the first ten months of 2008) were manufactured in Venezuela, while 24.260 cars (79.4 percent less than in the ten first months of 2008) were imported. In the first ten months of 2009, Venezuela exported only 54 vehicles, almost 13,000 units fewer than in 2008.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas