LIMA, Sept 15 (Askume) – Peru’s economy grew for a fourth consecutive month in July, with all sectors except agriculture contributing, official data showed on Sunday, continuing the country’s recovery from last year’s recession.
Annual growth that month was 4.47%, according to data from the INEI statistics agency, higher than the forecast last week by the chief economist of Peru’s Central Bank, which had previously expected it to grow by around 4%.
He said higher investment is expected to help drive the recovery, in line with the government’s target of 3.2% growth this year for the world’s third-largest copper producer.
July’s growth rate was a significant jump from the previous month, when Peru’s economy grew by 0.21%.
The manufacturing industry grew by 10.91% in July, while the mining and hydrocarbon industry grew by 3.10%, driven by growth in mining activity for metals such as molybdenum concentrate and silver.
However, the production of zinc, copper, and iron declined.
The agricultural sector declined by 3.93% due to smaller acreage, weather-related problems and some early harvests, lower volumes of olives, dry beans, red peppers, potatoes, cocoa and hard yellow corn.
The Andean country has had one of the best-performing economies in South America for years. However, the economy shrank 0.6% last year due to bad weather, sluggish private investment and the impact of anti-government protests on the mining industry.
