CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is expected to unveil an economic plan on Saturday that includes steps to raise revenue to help his government navigate a financial crunch brought on by the global crisis and declining oil prices.

Speculation grew on Friday that the program could include a devaluation of Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, which would help the government narrow a growing gap between spending and income by making each dollar of oil revenue worth more in local currency.

Venezuelans who can't buy dollars at the official 2.15 bolivar exchange rate are paying almost three times that in the black-market, where -- amid devaluation fears -- a dollar rose Friday to 6.4 bolivars, a level not seen since late 2007.

Venezuelan officials have been tight-lipped about the program's details, which could include tax increases and rises in public-sector prices like gasoline. Venezuela has some of the cheapest gas in the world, at $0.17 per gallon. Economists say Venezuela needs to devalue the currency and rein in government spending to prevent worse problems down the road.

Some analysts say there is little indication that Mr. Chávez plans to change his populist formula of high government spending and attacks on private capital -- a strategy that helped him win a vote last month that allows him to stay in office as long as he keeps winning elections.

This week, Mr. Chávez reassured voters he wouldn't make painful cuts in certain areas. "We won't cut investment in infrastructure projects. We're also not going to reduce social spending, we're not going to freeze wages and salaries," he said on Thursday.

Those promises are getting difficult to keep as the price of oil, which contributes about 50% of state revenue, remains well below the $60 a barrel the government needs for its budget.

There are no easy choices for Mr. Chávez. A devaluation could unleash steeper price increases by making imports more expensive in local terms. The inflation rate in Venezuela is already among the highest in the world.

These moves, while advocated by economists, would be deeply unpopular and spawn comparisons between the Chávez administration and past governments that binged during times of high oil prices and later had to pass tough economic measures that prompted protests and street riots.

Mr. Chávez, a former army officer, is trying to avoid such similarities, even ordering the creation of a special government committee to draw contrasts with other administrations' responses in times of crisis.

Alejandro Grisanti, an economist with Barclays Capital, says the government will try to postpone these hard-to-sell reforms until later in the year. "He thinks he can ride out the decline in oil prices for some time," said Mr. Grisanti, who predicts the economy will contract 4.1% this year.

There are few signs that the government is about to change its socialist-inspired polices. Even as Caracas seems to be running short on cash to pay oil contractors, Mr. Chávez pledged Thursday to restart the nationalization of the local operation of Banco Santander SA, which could raise the tally for his proposed nationalization drive to more than $11 billion.