CHAVEZ'S BIG BET AFTER NATIONALIZING OIL, TELECOMS AND ENERGY COMPANIES, VENEZUELA'S PRESIDENT MOVES ON TO SANTANDER

摘要

Mourning the end of the good old days when you could buy a house with little or no money down? In Venezuela that party is just getting started. In August the government issued 26 presidential decrees, including one that allows banks to offer 100 percent mortgages. Considering the global financial meltdown unleashed by the U.S. sub-prime crisis, the new law has few enthusiasts among Venezuela's private sector lenders. "Many banks will refuse to offer 100 percent mortgages in a country where interest rates are capped and annual inflation is set to exceed 30 percent," says Patrick Esteruelas, a New York-based Latin America analyst at Eurasia Group.