Venezuelan Economy and Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez is presenting to the National Assembly on Tuesday the 2010 Budget Bill, which estimates the oil barrel at $40.

Other announcements were a planned 0.5-percent economic growth and an inflation rate between 20-22 percent, lower than that in 2008 (30.9 percent) and to that planned for this year (27 percent).

According to the legislature, a production of 3.1 million daily barrels of crude oil and maintenance of the official exchange rate of 2.15 bolivars per dollar would be considered.

The total budget will be around 159 billion bolivars ($74 million), the legislative body said in a press release.

According to the government, calculations were made cautiously, taking into account the unpredictable impact of the financial crisis.

We are forced to be prudent and that will give the budget greater strength, warned President Hugo Chavez.

For 2010, the executive will continue to give priority to social investment in sectors as health, education, housing, employment and food.

Regarding that, National Assembly Finance Commission President Ricardo Sanguino reminded that thanks to that position, the poverty rate in Venezuela decreased in the last years from 20 percent in 1998 to less than nine percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Social investment has been our rule and will remain that way, said the representative.