Venezuela Dollar Income Falls 30% on Lower Oil Prices

Venezuela lost 30 percent of its foreign exchange revenue in the last month because of a “tremendous” drop in oil prices, President Nicolas Maduro said.

Venezuela’s average oil-export price last week fell to $72.80 a barrel, the lowest in four years, pushing the yield on the country’s benchmark bonds to almost 19 percent for the first time since the global financial crisis. Oil accounts for 97 percent of foreign exchange income, which the country needs to pay about $28.5 billion of bond principal due in 2016.