CARACAS, Dec 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The government of a "besieged" Venezuela on Thursday unveiled a proposed 2026 budget which, in US dollars, is 12 percent smaller than its spending plan for this year.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez presented a $19.9 billion budget for 2026 to the National Assembly as leftist President Nicolas Maduro faces the looming threat of US military action against the oil-producing Latin American country.

"We present this budget in a particular context of a besieged Venezuela," Rodriguez told lawmakers.

"It is a balance sheet of a positive Venezuela, which does not stop despite the interventionism of the United States."

She was alluding to the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has been mounting a military campaign targeting what Washington alleges are drug cartels with ties to Venezuela and Maduro.

The United States has deployed armed forces in Caribbean waters, including the world's largest aircraft carrier, as it exerts pressure on the Venezuelan president.

A defiant Maduro asserts that the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country's oil reserves.

The proposed annual budget of 5.02 billion bolivars that Rodriguez presented is substantially smaller than the US dollar equivalent budget of $22.69 billion approved for 2025.

Venezuela, which in 2021 emerged from a process of hyperinflation and eight years of recession, is showing signs of recovery according to the latest data from the central bank.

It reported an 8.7 percent growth in gross domestic product in the third quarter of this year.

The Venezuelan currency, the bolivar, suffers from constant depreciation that drags down the economy. The gap between the value of the official dollar and the dollar in the black market widened to exceed 50 percent.

The government attributes the economic difficulties to US sanctions, implemented since 2014 and reinforced by restrictions in the oil sector in 2019.

"This is a Venezuela that has found its path in the face of this psychological terror campaign against the country and a massive deployment of American military forces," Rodriguez said.

Since 2013, however, more than seven million Venezuelans have fled from the country to escape from the economic and political crisis.