Companies will neither be surprised, nor particularly concerned, knowing that Venezuela’s belligerent president’s bark is often worse than his bite.

With presidential elections looming in October, he is playing to the gallery – there’s little that his core supporters like more than a bit of fist-shaking at the private sector.

“We are getting ready to announce the new fair prices, and prices will go down,” Chávez said on Thursday, after the government froze the prices of 18 personal care items from toothpaste to toilet paper last November until “fair” prices could be determined.

He continued: “If a company doesn’t accept the new prices, we will nationalise it. We don’t have any problem doing that. Some of the companies to be affected are transnationals.” They include the likes of Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Johnson & Johnson.

But companies also know that as well as inflation, currently running at 27.6 per cent, Chávez faces a problem of shortages. This is something that has traditionally been far more damaging for Chávez’s performance at the polls.

After decades of high inflation in Venezuela, shoppers are used to rapidly rising prices, and tend not to blame this so much on the current government; but when they can’t find even the most basic things like milk or sugar on the supermarket shelves, understandably they get a bit fed up.

Chávez must be all too aware of this. Sure, the socialist leader may well make a few well-publicised tactical nationalisations to show that he’s whipping the evil capitalists into line, but ultimately he needs them to keep things running smoothly in the run-up to the elections.

That is in everyone’s interest.

What companies are really worrying about is what will happen after the elections, when the new government will have to face up to economic realities. With much of its cash spent, having generated serious inflationary pressures, and a heavily overvalued currency, some kind of adjustment will surely be due.

our board not getting much action lately, good weekend all