Venezuela: China to the rescue?

But is the influx all it appears to be? The $4bn is not fresh finance but a transfer to the central bank ordered by President Nicolás Maduro from funds provided under agreements with China. Caracas has borrowed some $50bn from Beijing in recent years. Critics have complained of the opacity of these loans, which do not normally enter the country’s reserves as cash but are kept aside in earmarked funds not open to parliamentary scrutiny. Only last month, Caracas tweaked the terms of a loans-for-oil arrangement with Beijing. More...