Venezuela Plans `Good Living' Credit Cards for Government-Run Retailers

Venezuela’s government will issue credit cards that allow customers to buy food, refrigerators and vacation packages from state-run companies and pay over time, Public Banking Minister Humberto Ortega said.

The “good living identity card” will permit customers of state-run Banco de Venezuela, Banco Del Tesoro and Banco Bicentenario to purchase goods on credit in any of the government’s chain of hypermarkets and supermarkets, known as Abastos Bicentenarios. Customers will also be able to buy vacations through the state-run travel agency Venezolana de Turismo, known as Venetur, Ortega said today in a statement.

President Hugo Chavez, an advocate of what he calls 21st- century socialism, announced plans to begin issuing the cards on Aug. 31, saying they weren’t for “consumerism.”

The Abastos Bicentenarios chain was created when Chavez nationalized Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA’s Exito hypermarkets and Cada stores in January, after accusing the company of illegally raising prices. The stores now sell products made by government-sponsored companies and subsidized imported products.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Caracas at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Corina Rodriguez Pons in Caracas at crpons@bloomberg.net

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