Economy and Finance Minister Waldo Mendoza on Monday noted that Peru has a great advantage in this COVID-19 pandemic compared to other countries, because it has sufficient resources to reactivate its productive apparatus.
"The great advantage that Peru has —unlike other countries— is that we have the resources, and we complain that we cannot spend them," he said in remarks to RPP radio and TV station.
"The apparatus to move the public investment process forward was already in place. If we review data from earlier this year, before COVID-19, public investment in January grew 90% —an impressive figure— and about 35% in February," he explained.
"In other words, that apparatus is available, and now that the pandemic is weaker, public investment (execution) has been revived.
In November, it rose 28%, which is very encouraging. In this sense and realistically speaking, public investment is the bullet for macroeconomic reactivation," the minister expressed.
"The President told us that
one of his major goals is to reactivate the economy. The instruments that MEF found at hand are various, but, at this juncture, we need to combine an instrument that allows us to reactivate the economy while ensuring fiscal soundness," he said.
"Public investment meets these two requirements and has several characteristics that make it the best option. First, it is labor-intensive; second, the expenditure is relatively transitory; and third, it not only creates demand and employment, but also boosts productive capacity (highways, roads, among others)," he added.
(END) CNA/JJN/RMB/MVB
Published: 12/7/2020