CARA­CAS–The In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund is pre­dict­ing Venezuela's trou­bled econ­o­my will shrink by sev­en per cent in 2015, suf­fer­ing the worst con­trac­tion in Latin Amer­i­ca.It's a dra­mat­ic down­grade from Oc­to­ber, when the IMF said Venezuela's econ­o­my would shrink by one per cent.

In a post pub­lished yes­ter­day, IMF West­ern Hemi­sphere Di­rec­tor Ale­jan­dro Wern­er says Venezuela will be clob­bered by falling oil prices, which have de­clined by half in the last six months. Oil ac­counts for more than 95 per cent of the South Amer­i­can coun­try's ex­port earn­ings.

Wern­er says that the Ar­gen­tine econ­o­my will al­so shrink, but by less than two per cent, and pre­dicts that over­all growth for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean will hold steady at slight­ly more than one per cent.Wern­er says the re­ces­sion in Venezuela will lead to wors­en­ing short­ages. (AP)