As indicated in the above table the statistics for Venezuela are not up to date. No GDP statistics, nominal or real, are available since 2004. The real GDP (GDP in constant prices) is not available with the same degree of confidence for the years 2003 and 2004. What is available for those years in the IMF statistics is a GDP volume index. This can be used to give an estimate of the GDP in constant prices for the two years but the IMF did not consider this sufficiently accurate to use for a GDP estimate in constant prices. When the GDP volume index for 2001 was used to obtain a figure for 2001 the value was 0.6 of 1% higher than the reported value. Thus the figures given in the above table should be considered to have a larger margin of error than the figures for previous years.

It is always easier to comprehend the trend of statistics in a visual display. Here is the graph of the above data.

There is another concept for the production of a country. It is called Gross National Income (GNP). This is the total production achieved with the resources owned by the citizens (nationals) of a country. For GNP the labor income of Venezuelan citizens working in other foreign countries are counted as part of the GNP of Venezuela (but not part of its GDP). Likewise the labor income of foreign workers in Venezuela are not part of its GNP. The same applies for profits of Venezuelan companies earned in foreign countries and the profits of foreign comapanies earned in Venezuela. The statisics for nominal GDP and GNP for Venezuela are shown below:

As can be seen from the above, there is more income for foreign resources (labor and capital) operating in Venezuela than for Venezuelan resources operating in foreign countries. In 2004 the difference was 6,162.2 billion Bolivares.

In order to compare the size of the Venezuelan economy with that of another country it is necessary to put both countries GDP into the same currency. The conversion factor used strongly affects the comparison. The market exchange rate of the U.S. and Venezuela dollars reflects the relative power of the two currencies so it is the appropriate conversion factor. In 2003 the average value of the Venezuelan Bolivar was about US$ 0.000626 (1598 Bovilares to the dollar). Thus the US dollar value of the Venezuelan GDP in 2003 was US$84 billion. In 2003 the U.S. GDP was US$ 10,400 billion. Thus Venezuela's GDP was 0.8 of 1 percent of the US GDP. Venezuela of course had a population of only 25.8 million compared to 290.3 million for the US. This means the per capita GDP in Venezuela in 2003 was US$ 3256 while that of the US was US$ 35,825.

The populations of Venezuela and Texas are roughly the same amount, 25.8 million versus 22.1 million, respecitively, so a comparison of the two economies is appropriate. If Texas were an independent nation it would be the tenth largest in the world. In 2003 the Gross State Product (its GDP) was US$ 828.5 billion. This was nine times larger than that of Venezuela.

In 2003 Venezuela had a GDP that was about exactly equal to the Gross State Product of the U.S. of Nevada.

(To be continued.)