Venezuela to quit IMF and World Bank

By Saul Hudson

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will withdraw from the Washington-based lending organisations, the IMF and World Bank, in a symbolic move that distances leftist President Hugo Chavez from much of the international economic community.

Chavez, who plans to create an alternative lending bank run by South American nations and funded in part with his OPEC nation's high oil revenue, said on Monday Venezuela no longer needed the institutions dominated by U.S. "imperialism."

Leaving the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank would severs ties between the fifth largest oil supplier to the United States and the world's leading lenders to emerging nations.

"We don't need to be going up to Washington ... We are going to get out," Chavez, who calls Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, said at an event to celebrate May Day workers' rights.

"I want to formalise our exit from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund," he said.

Chavez blames the organisations' decades-old economic recipes of tight budget control, privatisations and open markets for continued poverty across Latin America.

He wants to build a socialist state based on policies rejected by the institutions in Washington, such as those he announced on Monday -- a 20 percent minimum wage hike and a gradual reduction in the working day to six hours.

The move to quit the multilaterals is politically symbolic but should have little immediate financial impact.