Andina

World Bank: Peru fiscal policy among LatAm's best

Centro Financiero.Foto: ANDINA/Carlos Lezama

Centro Financiero.Foto: ANDINA/Carlos Lezama

14:16 | Lima, Aug. 28.

The World Bank Group (WBG) commended the Peruvian Government's well-organized resource management, which allows for growth forecasts without jeopardizing the sustainability of public finances.

As is known, the Peruvian Government recently rose the fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP in order to fund the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by climate events earlier this year.

While the measure initially raised doubts and fears among financial analysts, Moody's maintained Peru's A3 investment grade-stable outlook last week, thus reassuring agents and investors. 

In this sense, WBG Lead Economist and Program Manager for Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela Pedro Luis Rodriguez praised the Inca country's fiscal and macroeconomic management. 

"I think Peru's sustainability, fiscal policies and macroeconomic management are spectacular. These are not my words, but the World Bank's," Rodriguez told El Peruano official gazette. 
 
Rodriguez thus echoed WBG's Leaning Against the Wind: Fiscal Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean in a Historical Perspective report, which underscored Peru's countercyclical fiscal response. 

The WBG expert underlined the Andean nation's "enviable" position compared to other Latin American countries, and assured Peru's fiscal policy has been "one of the best in the region" in the past decade.  

Post-El Niño reconstruction 

The WBG official also welcomed the government's approach to the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by Coastal El Niño disasters, which involves the injection of S/23 billion (about US$7.2 bn) into the national economy. 

While regretting the plight of victims, Rodriguez noted related spending has a "reactivating and modernizing effect on a macro scale, and we like the government's policy regarding the reconstruction."

Growth forecast

World Bank Group growth projections for Peruvian economy are being reviewed. Forecasts are to be delivered as part of a corresponding report in October 2017. 

Last April, the global financial institution estimated Peru's 2017 GDP growth at 2.8% due to the said phenomenon disasters, as well as a recovery to 3.8% in 2018 driven by infrastructure reconstruction projects. 

 (END) MDV/MVB


Published: 8/28/2017