ABSTRACT
Venezuela has the highest per capita income in Latin America: nearly twice that of Mexico and three times that of Brazil. Venezuela is an export economy in the sense that a single export, petroleum, accounts for over one-fourth of GNP and over 90 percent of merchandise exports. As in the case of most export economies, Venezuela’s rate of economic growth has reflected the fortunes of her export industry. During the 1950-57 period, the dollar value of petroleum exports more than doubled, and gross fixed investment in the petroleum industry averaged nearly Bs.l billion ($300 million) annually. During this period, Venezuela’s real per capita growth rate averaged more than 5 percent per annum. From 1957 to 1966 petroleum exports stagnated, 1 and foreign investment in the petroleum industry fell off sharply after 1958; during the 1960—66 period, net fixed investment in petroleum was negative in every year. During the 1958—66 period, average real per capita growth was about 1 percent per annum, substantially lower than that for the rest of Latin America.
