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Venezuela opposition rejects Maduro's 'economic emergency' decree
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy-idUSKCN0V01Y3Venezuela's opposition refused on Friday to approve President Nicolas Maduro's "economic emergency" decree in Congress, saying it offered no solutions for the OPEC member-nation's increasingly disastrous recession.
Underlining the grave situation in Venezuela, where a plunge in oil prices has compounded dysfunctional policies, the International Monetary Fund forecast an 8 percent drop in gross domestic product and 720 percent inflation this year.
"The people voted for a change, not a failed communist model," said Elias Mata, vice-president of a commission analyzing the decree at the National Assembly which the opposition won from the ruling Socialists in a December vote.
Maduro's decree, issued a week ago, envisaged wider executive powers to control the budget, companies and currency. But the opposition says he already has sufficient powers and Maduro is the real problem.