Oxford Business Group highlights Peru's economic measures to face COVID-19

The South American country started the pandemic with a reputation for being one of Latin America's most resilient economies, having avoided recession since 1998.

As is known, the response has been designed to facilitate a rapid economic recovery in the third and fourth quarters of the year.

"However, while growth for 2020 was initially forecast by the IMF at 3.2%, the body's revised forecast, released in April, now anticipates a contraction of 4.5%," it stated.

Peru's agriculture sector started 2020 on a strong footing, with exports of high-value agricultural products such as fruit and vegetables rising by 18% year-on-year in January and February, while agricultural exports in general rose by 6%.

"Although this rate of growth will not have been sustained in March and April as global market conditions deteriorated, it is thought that the agriculture sector is in a reasonably good position to weather the storm, and emerge in a strong position," Oxford Business Group expressed.

Peru's diverse geography and climate means that it is able to produce a wide range of products, and supply global markets for much of the year: the COVID-19 outbreak coincided with harvest time for mango, grape, and cranberry crops, while Hass avocado, pomegranate and mandarin crops were about to be harvested.

The group recalled that Peru's Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Edgar Vasquez said in an interview in April that he 

expected food exports to maintain a substantial pace throughout 2020.

While acknowledging that there had been a small drop in agricultural exports during the month of March, he said that Peru was ready to supply global demand when it begins to rise.