CARACAS: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered his government to slash the budget of his oil-dependent and economically-weak nation, as crude prices plunge after OPEC held output steady.

Maduro called for a “substantial reduction” of the salaries of senior officials, from state firms to ministries and his own wages.

While insisting that Venezuela “has the conditions to resist the falling oil price,” Maduro announced a commission tasked with cutting public spending.

Maduro said his economy minister, Rodolfo Marco Torre, would travel to China next week to “deepen economic and financing agreements” that would help Venezuela cover the oil revenue shortfall.

The Chinese government has already loaned $40 billion to Venezuela, whose public deficit amounted to 16 percent of gross domestic product last year.