Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's move to decree an "economic emergency" seeks to make the ascendant opposition share the political cost of the South American oil giant's economic mess, analysts say. The decree, which gives Maduro 60 days of extraordinary powers to combat a deep recession and triple-digit inflation, was issued Friday and now passes to the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which must approve it, reject it or demand changes within eight days.

National Assembly Speaker Henry Ramos Allup has been scathing in his criticism of Maduro but nevertheless promised the opposition would study the decree.

Maduro has held similar decree powers in the past, but at the time they were rubber-stamped by a friendly National Assembly.

Economic analysts say rather than make fundamental changes to the oil-dependent economy, Maduro will probably double down on the state-heavy policies of the past 17 years.

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