The macroeconomic performance of Peru turned it into the star of Latin America. However, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the country's structural problems,
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Country Representative in Peru Tomas Bermudez said on Wednesday.
"Peru has been the macroeconomic star of Latin America, but one of the things that the pandemic has laid bare is the structural issues that have dragged on for a long time," he pointed out.
For his part, IDB Senior Economist Javier Beverinotti explained the study in greater detail, which states that a favorable external context provided additional impetus to Peru, thus allowing it to attract investment and important fiscal resources needed to achieve a reduction in poverty and extreme poverty rates.
The IDB document indicates that —although economic growth is a necessary condition for development— it is not enough, because inequality did not decline in the same magnitude as poverty, which reveals the continued existence of income gaps that resulted from asymmetries in access to basic and higher education, health, as well as economic and social infrastructure services.
Beverinotti remarked that this situation has resulted in low levels of productivity, precarious working conditions, and the consolidation of informality as the most common way of working and doing business.
"We know that Peru has a very high level of labor and business informality, and we see that this greatly affected the most vulnerable groups during the crisis period in 2020," he commented.
The IDB study indicates that low productivity also led to an inefficient allocation of resources, as a result of pending issues such as innovation, digitalization, and financial inclusion.
(END) CNA/JJN/RMB/MVB
Published: 5/19/2021