Although public spending drove growth up to 5% this year, inflation is near 20% and the Venezuelan currency trades on the black market for a third of theofficial rate.
But in theofficial model used by the European Commission, imposing a tax of 0.1 per cent on stocks and bond trades and 0.01 per cent on all derivatives is found to reduce long-run gross domestic product in the EU by 1.76 per cent.
Berlin is concerned about taxing derivative trades, and thinks it may be difficult to tax all trades where one party is located in the EU, a senior EU official said.