The Peruvian Production Minister warned
on Tuesday that growth in the country’s manufacturing industry would be flat
for 2014. The country’s economic performance this year has been its worst since
2009. Minister Piero Ghezzi added that,
unless Peru diversifies its economy beyond the mining sector, it would never be
able to regain the levels of 7% annual economic growth. Nonetheless, the Minister is optimistic that
the manufacturing sector and the economy in general will rebound in 2015,
thanks to increased public spending by the Humala administration.
From the same press conference, it was reported
that Peru plans to increase its federal investment in the development of new
technologies. Currently, Peru only invests 0.12% of its GDP in research and
development, whereas the regional average is 0.75% of GDP. According to
Minister Ghezzi, the government will invest in a total of 268 projects through
2016. The Peruvian government is already
investing in 23 projects, including innovative new businesses and startup
business incubators.
Separately, Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras announced
that it had received $2.2 billion from the sale of its oil and gas assets in
Peru to PetroChina. The tax bill on this windfall amounted to just $400,000.
According to Petrobras, the company is divesting from its foreign assets in
order to invest in Brazil’s offshore desposits.
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