Weekly Report - 19 December 2019 (WR-19-50)

VENEZUELA | 2020 budget. The constituent assembly (ANC), Venezuela’s de facto legislative body in which President Nicolás Maduro’s government holds a majority, voted on 16 December to approve a BS252.2bn (US$5.4bn) budget for 2020. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez described this as a “social equality budget”, and confirmed that 75.9% of the total will be committed towards social investment, in an attempt to resuscitate the country’s ailing economy, and minimise the impact of extreme deprivation.