Venezuela closed 2025 with GDP growth of 6.5%, yet its companies have fewer employees than two years ago. How do you explain that paradox? Through a map of contrasts where high expectations of expansion coexist with structural obstacles that no upturn cycle has managed to dismantle, according to the diagnosis in the latest report by the Economic Analysis Unit (UAE) of Fedecámaras, the country’s main private business association — and its reading is clear: in 2026, mere survival strategies are no longer enough. The new imperative is competitiveness, differentiation, and innovation. We break down the report in four key points.
The same old challenges remain the biggest obstacles for businesses
Despite the institutional and legal changes underway in the country since January, there are structural conditions whose resolution may take much longer — which is why obstacles very similar to those faced by the business sector in previous years persist. Access to financing remains extremely scarce for large segments of Venezuelan business: although it grew 23% year-on-year through November 2025 according to the firm Global Scope, Venezuela’s loan portfolio hovers around 2.6% of GDP — a negligible figure compared to the Latin American average, which typically ranges between 45% and 50%.
Fiscal pressure in Venezuela represents another critical challenge. According to the Venezuelan Association of Tax Law, taxes absorb between 60% and 80% of the profits of formal companies. Compounding this pressure, bureaucracy demands an extraordinary operational effort: opening a small business takes 7,108 hours, more than double the regional average.
Intermittent public services continue to be a problem, even in the oil industry. According to a survey by Macro Consultores conducted among business guilds, 78% of companies experienced losses due to power supply failures during the third quarter of 2025.
Venezuela feels the ripple effects of the intelligence era
Beyond the domestic environment, Fedecámaras considers the global fluctuation in RAM memory prices — a fundamental hardware component that temporarily stores data — driven by rising demand from advances in AI to be a relevant factor for Venezuelan companies’ financial planning. More than an imminent catastrophe, this trend represents a medium-term management challenge that invites organizations to review their technology upgrade budgets in greater detail.
The tertiary sector — services — is the most affected, as companies in this space tend to be capital-intensive, particularly in banking and telecommunications. Here, Fedecámaras projects increases of up to 25% in the acquisition of servers and administrative equipment, making a review of upgrade cycles to avoid obsolescence critical to their continuity.
Ultimately, prudent administrative management and an up-to-date technical inventory will be the best tools for navigating this price cycle without compromising the organization’s productivity or financial stability.
The labor market: fewer jobs, higher salaries
Fedecámaras reports that employment levels in the private sector fell 1.7% during the third quarter of 2025 and have maintained this trend since early 2023, in contrast with the 6.5% GDP growth that the Venezuelan economy experienced during 2025 according to ECLAC. This discrepancy stems from the fact that this expansion has not necessarily translated into a widespread and decisive improvement in wage conditions.
This reality acts as a powerful incentive for workers in both the public and private sectors to enter the informal economy. By operating outside formal records and evading a suffocating tax burden, many find in informality an immediate profitability that the formal sector cannot offer. By mid-2025, Alfredo Padilla, director general of the Association of Workers, Entrepreneurs and Micro-entrepreneurs, was warning that the informal sector was the primary source of employment in Venezuela.
Nevertheless, Fedecámaras also reports a year-on-year increase in dollar-denominated salaries. Average compensation for workers rose 14.9%, for professionals 21%, and for managers 28.2% compared to the third quarter of 2024, placing wages between $216 and $827 per month.
This reveals that companies have opted for a strategy of controlled workforce reduction while retaining essential staff or those with more sought-after profiles within the labor market. This new structure would allow them to adapt to the challenging conditions of the environment while ensuring their operational capacity and quality in the short and medium term.
From survival to growth
Although the Fedecámaras Economic Analysis Unit report focuses on the close of 2025, its projections for 2026 were already outlining an optimistic scenario for key sectors. Projected economic growth is led by real estate services (+9.1%), followed by tourism (+9.0%) and commerce (+8.1%) — sectors that have maintained their dynamism thanks to renewed interest from foreign capital and a stabilization of domestic consumption. Of course, following the events of January 3rd, these projections may have changed significantly.
Regardless, Venezuela’s current context demands a profound shift in management thinking, as economist Asdrúbal Oliveros argues in his blog. Having “held on” through the crisis is no guarantee of prosperity in an era of greater openness; resilience is no longer enough — the challenge now is competitiveness and structural sustainability. Some strategies worth considering in this new landscape include:
- Talent retention: to secure the permanence of key personnel in the face of potential new competitors entering the market, companies must design attractive compensation packages, invest in continuous training, and optimize non-salary benefits that complement the economic proposition — such as cafeterias, insurance plans, or a wellness-oriented organizational culture.
- Optimization and differentiation: mitigating potential downward price pressure from new entrants through operational and technological optimization to reduce costs, while differentiating the value proposition.
- Brand building: leveraging local cultural codes and a sense of Venezuelan rootedness to consolidate an emotional connection with customers, establishing a critical differentiating factor against competitors with less recognition or track record in the national market.
Today, the real challenge for Venezuelan businesses is not just navigating the same old obstacles — it is understanding that the projected growth will not arrive through inertia, but through sound strategy. In this new cycle, it is no longer about surviving the environment. It is about conquering the new market that is taking shape.
