Nicolás Maduro said his administration deserves the Nobel Prize in Economics

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro declared on Wednesday that his administration deserves the Nobel Prize in Economics for its strategy in the face of international sanctions imposed for human rights violations in Venezuela.

"Faced with sanctions, what we did was to stand up, put our brains into it, look for the best world advisors in economy, in currency, in finance, in fiscal policies, in productive policies, and today we can say that we deserve the Nobel Prize in Economics because we have gone forward on our own, with the Bolivarian Economic Agenda and the 18 engines, step by step", he said in a speech broadcast by the state-owned Venezuelan Television Network (VTV).

"The blockade accelerated the process of moving away from a primarily oil economy and made a new diversified economy begin to emerge, with virtuous cycles to produce food, goods, services, energy," he added, without mentioning the drop in Venezuelan oil production and exports that caused a fuel crisis in March 2021.

#23Mar #Declaraciones
Nicolás Maduro aseguró que su régimen se merece el Premio Nobel de Economía https://t.co/wS9Howr2R1 pic.twitter.com/2KMlM8N7IX - @monitoreamos

— Reporte Ya (@ReporteYa) March 23, 2022

According to Maduro, Venezuelans who have emigrated due to the crisis live in worse conditions in the countries where they live than they did in Venezuela.

"There are many cases in which the mother or relatives who stayed here are sending money to Venezuelans to pay for a 20 square meter house in Lima or Chile," he continued, without mentioning Venezuelans living abroad who have to send money to their relatives still living in Venezuela.

Awarding the regime a Nobel Prize in Economics would not only mean rewarding one of the three lowest-performing countries in the region in 2021, but also rewarding one of the countries with the lowest wages and one of the worst conditions for workers.

In September 2021, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) ranked Venezuela, together with Cuba and Haiti, as one of the countries with the worst economic performance during the year.

The Hanke Annual Misery Index 2021 (HAMI) ranked Cuba in the first place as the "most miserable" country in the world, followed by Venezuela.

"Behind Cuba, Venezuela is the second most miserable country in the world according to my Misery Index. No wonder, since its socialist economy has collapsed with inflation soaring at 135% per year by my measure," explained HAMI's creator, economist Steve H. Hanke, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Behind Cuba, Venezuela is the second most miserable country in the world according to my Misery Index. No surprise, as its socialist economy has collapsed w/inflation soaring at 135%/yr by my measure. Take a look at the rest of the rankings.https://t.co/1DvJbipY9E

— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) March 20, 2022

The index of "miserable" countries is calculated by the sum of the year-end unemployment, inflation, and bank lending rates, minus the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita. In addition to the authoritarian regimes of Cuba and Venezuela, the ten most "miserable" countries in Latin America last year were Argentina (6) and Brazil (9), along with Angola, Suriname, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, and Iran.