MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru’s economic fundamentals sound and will be respected, says Humala

Economist Burneo revealed that most of Humala’s team served under former president Alejandro Toledo

The Peruvian currency and Lima’s stock market partially recovered on Tuesday from the dramatic Monday collapse when it was confirmed nationalist Ollanta Humala had been elected in a very tight run-off to become the country’s next president.

Economist Kurt Burneo and member of president elect Humala’s transition team claimed that for some politicians the campaign is not over and “instead of calming the electorate, they have been determined to scare people” with their remarks.

“I challenge any economist, anyone, to come forward and explain there are economic fundamentals behind the Monday fall in the stock market, because there are none to support that position” said Burneo.

The economist also complained about insistent pressures on president elect Humala to name his future cabinet members, “they are only interested in dumping them into the mincing machine”.

“The National Elections Office has yet to officially declare Humala as elected president and strangely enough he is being demanded to make public the names of his ministers, the question is why?, I think the best bet is that they want to launch a campaign to discredit them even before taking office”, claimed Burneo.

The economist called for calm and revealed that the team working with president elect Humala is virtually the same that implemented the economic reforms during the administration of former president Alejandro Toledo (2000/2005).

Burneo also called on current officials at the Ministry of Economy and the central bank to concentrate on their jobs because they still have the responsibility of conducting Peruvian affairs until July 28 when president-elect Humala will be inaugurated.

The member of “Gana Peru” (Peru wins) said Humala will honour his campaign promises to reinforce and create new social programs such as Pension 65, but they will be done gradually without affecting the Peruvian economy.

Finally and mentioning he was speaking for Humala, Burneo underlined “nothing is going to change, absolutely nothing in respect of bank deposits or the fundamentals of the economy. We are going to develop economic policies entirely prudent. The only distinctive will be Ollanta Humala’s policies to emphasize on social and inclusion programs”.

Former president Toledo administration was clearly pro-business and helped consolidate the open economy and foreign investment policies started in Peru during the nineties.