The government of Venezuela has announced that it will have to tighten its belt and restructure its budget, despite a culture of ever-increasing bureaucratic spending that has resulted from the unprecedented income generated by oil prices, according to experts.

The administration of President Hugo Chávez announced several budget cuts, including reductions to the high salaries that are paid to some officials. The measures come as a response to the plummeting price of Venezuelan crude that has fallen by as much as $40 in recent months and is now compounded by the financial crisis that has assailed international markets.

The austerity measures propose to ''first reduce costs, do away with wasteful spending, end corruption and unnecessary expenses, put an end to mega-salaries,'' Chávez told Venezuelans this week on television.

According to a recent investigation of the Chávez administration's spending, the high salaries paid to certain officials and extraordinary expenses reached unprecedented proportions in the 2008 budget.

The level of extraordinary expenses revealed in the study comes in sharp contrast to the low wages earned by the majority of Venezuelans. About 30 governmental organizations, including 22 ministries and the office of the executive, included more than $46 million in the budget for food and beverage expenses.

Similarly, Chávez himself reserved about $160,000 for suits and more than $70,000 for footwear.

Venezuela's Minister of Finance, Alí Rodríguez, detailed that the 2009 budget would drastically reduce costs of ''certain types of vehicles, cellphones and celebrations,'' including a public campaign ``towards savings and austerity.''

''The mentality that has prevailed is the mentality of a rich society, when in reality it is not,'' noted Rodríguez during a televised interview with former Vice President José Vicente Rangel.

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