Scotch shortage pleases Chavez as tipplers blame currency

on 10/08/10 at 5:34 pm

Industry

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who declared an economic war against bourgeois comforts, is winning one for the socialists in his battle against the nation’s most popular spirit: Scotch whisky.

Chavez’s shutdown of the unregulated currency market is reducing shipments and sales of whisky and pushing up prices by almost 50 percent as companies including Diageo Plc and Pernod- Ricard SA struggle to obtain dollars for imports.

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