Lima 2013 Blog: Panel – Economic Overview of Peru and the Region

How will Peru's investment in water management affect economic growth? Can the country continue its path of high GDP, low inflation, and fiscal responsibility while complying with social demands? These were the theme of a discussion about the economic overview of Peru today and its potential. 

 

The last panel of the AS/COA Latin American Cities Conference explored Peru's current numbers and the country's outlook for the next few years. Peru's Vice Minister of Economy and Finance José Giancarlo Gasha Tamashiro gave an overview of the country's macroeconomic context and said the government intends to increase its budget for water management and sanitation. Other fields of focus for the coming years in the country include electricity and telecommunications. 

 

He spoke of how his country has focused on building a budeget with fiscal balance, but also said the country's macroeconomic growth depends greatly on what will happen with the economy in China. 

 

Other economic analysts in the panel highlighted Peru successful numbers. Luis Rivases, from Citigroup, talked about Peru's "umprecedently diverse year" in terms of transactions, and explained how interest rates were fundamental to boost national industry. 

 

Discussing these numbers and the market perspective of Peru, Director of Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings Erich Arispe talked about the upgrading of Peru to a +BBB status, falling only behind Chile in Latin America. He mentioned that the numbers show that Peru has a strong fiscal capacity.