MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru foresees great economic expansion for 2017

Peru's Economy and Finance Minister Alfredo Thorne

Peru's Economy and Finance Minister Alfredo Thorne said Thursday his country is set to record a growth of 4.8% as next year's budget was passed. Private investment in areas such as infrastructure will be the key.

 ”For the next year we expect to grow 4.8%, driven mainly by private investment (1.3 percentage points), public spending (0.5 percentage point), exports and other. That way we would have the highest growth rate in the region,“ Thorne said. While supporting the Budget, Indebtedness and Financial Equilibrium Act for fiscal year 2017, Thorne said he expects public investment to be at 5.5% of GDP in 2017.

”The growth of Peruvian GDP has remained around 4% per annum, although in the third quarter of this year it reached a level of 4.4% and much was explained by the effect of copper production and the primary sectors,“ he said.

The minister said that the international scenario is increasingly worrying, with global projections for a slow worldwide growth, a which can be explained through what is going on in developed economies such as the United States.

”The international context in which we operate presents us with the enormous challenge of balancing the multiple needs of investment and spending to boost growth and preserve the prudence and fiscal responsibility that has allowed us to reap so many successes over the last two decades,” the minister explained.