Venezuela's Maduro to visit China to talk financing as oil country's economy worsens

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is traveling to China to discuss financing as the South American nation's economy sinks into a recession.

China is the socialist country's largest creditor. Maduro said Sunday that he would talk about Venezuela's oil-for-loans agreements with President Xi Jinping.

Venezuela is struggling with the world's highest inflation, a newly confirmed recession and a cash crunch brought about partly by a steep fall in the price of oil, which makes up 95 percent of the country's export earnings.

At the end of December, Maduro announced that he would make the economy his chief focus in 2015.