 |
PERU PROFILE |
People
Population: 28.7 million
Annual population growth rate: 1.6%.
Religions: Roman Catholic (81%), other (10%).
Languages: Spanish is the principal language. Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages also have official status.
Cities: Lima (capital), Arequipa, Chiclayo, Cuzco, Huancayo, Ica, Trujillo, Ayacucho, Piura, Iquitos, and Chimbote.
Peru is the fifth most populous country in Latin America (after Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina). Twenty-one cities have a population of 100,000 or more. Rural migration has increased the urban population from 35.4% of the total population in 1940 to an estimated 74.6% as of 2005.
Most Peruvians are either Spanish-speaking mestizos--a term that usually refers to a mixture of indigenous and European/Caucasian--or Amerindians, largely Quechua-speaking indigenous people. Peruvians of European descent make up about 15% of the population. There also are small numbers of persons of African, Japanese, and Chinese ancestry. Socioeconomic and cultural indicators are increasingly important as identifiers.
Economy:
GDP: USD 127.8 billion.
Annual growth rate: 9.8%.
Per capita GDP: USD 4,477.
Peru's economy has shown strong growth over the past seven years, averaging 6.8% a year, helped by market-oriented economic reforms and privatizations in the 1990s, and measures taken since 2001 to promote trade and attract investment. GDP grew 9.8% in 2008, 8.9% in 2007, 7.7% in 2006, and 6.8% in 2005. President Alan García and his economic team have continued these policies. Recent economic expansion has been driven by construction, mining, private investment, exports, and domestic consumption. Inflation (annual average) jumped to 5.8% in 2008, due mostly to substantial global foods and oil prices increases, and the fiscal surplus (third year in a row) was 2.1% of GDP. Thanks to pre-payments, public external debt in 2008 dropped to $19.2 billion, and foreign reserves were a record USD 31.2 billion.
|
|
|
