Manufacturers in Venezuela were without power for nearly half of working hours
in Q2, the country’s largest industrial group, the Industrial Federation, said
in a Tuesday survey. Firms averaged 488 working hours in the quarter, of which
214 hours lacked electricity, and reported 57 unplanned outages on average—about
five per week—an 18% increase from Q1. The federation said years of
underinvestment and poor maintenance in the power sector, compounded by U.S.
sanctions, are constraining the industrial sector and hampering the economic
recovery.