Washington, DC: A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research looks at the Venezuelan economy during the last eight years and finds that it does not fit the mold of an “oil boom headed for a bust,” as is commonly believed.

“There’s no obvious end in sight for Venezuela’s current economic expansion,” said economist Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and co-author of the paper “The Venezuelan Economy in the Chavez Years.”

The paper notes that Venezuela’s economy was wracked by political instability for the first four years of President Hugo Chavez’s tenure, but has grown steadily and rapidly over the last four years, after political stability returned to the country following the oil strike of December 2002 to February 2003.

Since the bottom of that downturn in the first quarter of 2003, Venezuela’s real GDP has grown by 76 percent.

Moreover, the private sector is still a larger share of the economy than it was before President Chavez took office.

More at VenezuelanAnalysis.com