CARACAS (Bloomberg) — Venezuela has no "short-term" plan to devalue its currency, the bolivar, Finance Minster Rodrigo Cabezas said yesterday."If we have to devalue eventually, it will be for macroeconomic reasons," Cabezas said in interview on Caracas- based TV station Televen. "But in the short term, the government doesn't have cash flow problems so there is no need to devalue the currency."

As recently as June 22, Cabezas rejected any devaluation of the official exchange rate, which is fixed at 2,150 bolivars per US dollar. In his comments yesterday, the minister repeated a prior statement that the government won't make policy based on movements in the parallel market, where the currency has declined 16 percent this year to 4,070 bolivars per dollar.

The parallel, or unregulated, market accounts for just five percent of Venezuelan imports, or $40 million to $50 million a week, Cabezas said yesterday.

President Hugo Chavez imposed currency controls four years ago. Venezuelans turn to unregulated markets when they can't get approval from the government's Foreign Exchange Administration Commission to buy dollars at the official exchange rate.