Fresh Peruvian Asparagus & Blueberries will be exported to the US according to a recent article in El Comercio. Both countries are developing systems to mitigate the risk of pests such as the fruit fly and allow more a more open process for exports to the US. Continue reading Peru News Roundup→
I try to keep up with the news as much as I can, and Yrma often points out things that may be of interest. We watch with particular attention to news that affect the Peruvian economy, and we tend to focus of course on agricultural imports, in particular coffee & chocolate. Here’s several translated articles that you may enjoy.
Depending on who you talk to or read these days, the Peruvian economy is robust, or slowing. While officials remain upbeat & expect economic growth to be close to 5%, they missed the mark by nearly half last year. (see Why the Peruvian Economy Matters to the World) While the continued decline of the Sol vs the USD is supportive of export growth, the fact that 50% of all debt in Peru is denominated in dollars will offset any gains from a lower national currency.
As I first began to think about this post I imagined that the line “Why the Peruvian economy matters to the world,” would be considered by some in high finance circles to be somewhat comedic relief, maybe like a night out at the improv comedy club for Keynesian economists and bankers.
It’s not to say that Peru’s economy is so large or anything like that, being just 51st in nominal GDP worldwide, (source) but rather that its run to glory is so typical of what has happened to little countries all over the world since 2008. As the “free” Federal Reserve dollars sloshed around the planet searching for anywhere to grow faster, faster, those same dollars found a happy home in many emerging and smaller nations. Peru by itself is just one of the many, but the sum total of debt between all those “little” emerging nations is a significant sum that could easily cripple the banking system.