Similarly, growth in Venezuela’s non-oil sector led with 10.4% growth over the country’s oil sector, which expanded by 4.2%. Even within the oil sector, private sector growth outpaced that of the public sector, with 9.6% to 2.8%, respectively.

In the non-oil sector, the economic activities that grew the most were manufacturing (9.3%), commerce and repair services (18.1%), construction (18.4%), and general government services (7.3%).

Economic growth in Venezuela during the Chavez presidency has varied greatly, with the economy shrinking by 6% in 1999, Chavez’s first year in office, largely due to low oil revenues. It then grew by 3.7% and 3.4% in 2000 and 2001. With the on-set of political polarization, politically motivated strikes, the 2002 coup attempt, and the two month shut-down of the country’s all-important oil industry in late 2002, however, the economy shrank by 8.9% in 2002 and by 7.7% in 2003. It made a significant recovery in 2004, growing by 17.9% in 2004, one of the largest economic growth figures in the world for that year. For all of 2005 the economy is expected to grow another 10%. So far, it has grown by 9.1% during the first three quarters of 2005, relative to the first three quarters of 2004.