Chavez Currency ‘Burn’ Failing as $93 Billion Leaves Venezuela

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a.eiJxW7dsGY&pos=13

The plan will fail because Chavez’s nationalizations and land seizures are prompting Venezuelans to pull money from the country, said Alberto Ramos, a Goldman Sachs economist. More than $93 billion has left the South American nation since 2005, according to the central bank’s capital account data.

“At around 5 per dollar or so, the government would have to burn a lot of reserves to maintain it,” Grisanti said in a phone interview from New York. “It wouldn’t be sustainable.”

Only a more “market friendly” stance from Chavez would slow capital flight, Ramos said.