Venezuela Reduces 09 Budget Spending Plans By 6.7% -Chavez

President Hugo Chavez revealed his plans to adapt his spending projects to the decline in state revenue triggered by the collapse in the price of oil and the global economic slowdown. Venezuela will lower its oil price forecast to $40 per barrel from $60 per barrel, which is used to calculate its 2009 budget, Chavez said. The government will also reduce its 2009 budget by 6.7%, shrinking it to 156.4 billion bolivars ($72.7 billion). The measures are geared "to confront a great threat that originates in the economic model defended by the national bourgeois," Chavez said before unveiling the measures Saturday during a countrywide television address. The president staunchly defended his government's socialist-inspired agenda and pledged that the plan would "protect what we've been achieving."