SOCIALIST POLICIES IN VENEZUELA RAISE INFLATION TO 36% ANNUALIZED RATE

SOSD/AP:

Monthly inflation reached 3 percent in January in Venezuela, despite efforts by President Hugo Chavez to tame consumer prices soaring amid an oil-fueled spending boom.

Inflation in January – usually one of the year's slowest months as consumers recover from holiday spending – swelled from the 2 percent rate reported for the same month of 2007, the Central Bank said Friday in a statement.

High oil prices are flooding the country with cash and boosting public spending, driving 8.4 percent growth in 2007. Venezuela is one of the world's top oil producers and the fourth-largest supplier to the United States.

Its annual inflation rate is 22.5 percent, the highest in Latin America.

LA CALLE DE SERFDOM.

• CHAVEZ IS CATCHING UP TO MUGABE.
• THESE ARE THE FRUTIS OF SOCIALISM.
• THIS IS WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT OBAMA/HILLARY/MCCAIN TO DO TO OUR ECONOMY.
• THE MISERY INDEX WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY LIB JIMMY CARTER.
• THE SAME LIB DEMS WILL BRING IT BACK.

A VOTE FOR OBAMA/HILLARY/MCCAIN IS A VOTE FOR MORE MISERY - FOR THE COMMON GOOD OF COURSE.