Today (March 5th) – on the 60 year anniversary of Stalin’s death – Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez passed away.

I think Chavez’s economic legacy can be pretty well-illustrated by two graphs comparing Venezuela’s economic performance from 1999 when Chavez became president with three ‘neo-liberal’ Latin American countries – Chile, Peru and Colombia.

We start out with the real GDP level (Index 1999 = 100)

And next the price level (GDP deflator, Index 1999 = 100)

I leave it to my readers to judge whether Hugo Chavez’s death is a positive or a negative shock to Venezuela’s economy.

PS I am not claiming that Venezuelan economic statistics has not been manipulated. My source is IMF.

Related posts:

Food shortage is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon

A modest proposal for post-Chavez monetary reform in Venezuela