VENEZUELA: No Bonds Defaults Says C.Bank Prez. Merentes.

REUTERS/ E. Chinea 
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  Central bank president Nelson Merentes ( pictured) insists Venezuela will not default on its foreign debts and investors should continue to buy bonds.
  Merentes said that when Venezuela faced a months-long oil strike that crippled its economy in 2002...it still met its obligations. 
   In February, Capital Economics predicted that default was probable before Chavez's re-election campaign in December 2012. 
    Because of high yields...as much as 16 %...Venezuela's bonds and those of its oil company PDVSA are some of the world's most traded usd bonds. 
   In the past year, Venezuela and PDVSA issued almost $14 billion in usd debt, most of it ($11 Bn) for PDVSA.

VENEZUELA: Foreign Exchange Rates Debut.

REUTERS Q&A With MERCOPRESS quote/
The central bank set an implicit exchange rate of about 5.3 Bolivars per USD in a new currency market in hopes of controlling inflation and the black market in foreign exchange. The official trading band ranges between 4.3 and 5.3 per USD. Under the previous system, President Chavez blamed currency speculators for inflation and said brokerages, which performed bond swaps for clients to obtain dollars, were fueling capital flight, laundering money and setting artificial exchange rates. Individuals will be limited to 5,000 USD per year. “About 90% of the operations were done at 5.3” said Central Bank President Nelson Merentes. “We knocked down the price."