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Peru has a wealth of mineral resources. Copper, iron, lead, zinc, bismuth, phosphates, and manganese exist in great quantities of high-yield ores. Gold and silver are found extensively, as are other rare metals, and petroleum fields are located along the far north coast and the northeastern part of Amazonia.
In spite of the country’s potential mineral wealth, exploitation lagged in much of the last third of the 20th century for a number of reasons, including diminished foreign investment, world price fluctuations, lack of transportation facilities, a scarcity of processing plants, the depletion of deposits in many traditional mining areas, and the limitations of the centralized state mining administration. Beginning in the 1970s—and particularly during the 1990s—many of the nationalized mines and unexploited deposits were sold to private Peruvian and international investors. As a result, new mines have been opened, such as the Yanacocha gold-mine complex near Cajamarca, which is now one of the largest producers of gold in the world. Difficulties of geography have hindered developments, however, because some of the most-promising deposits are located at elevations above 12,000 feet (3,600 metres) or in the Amazonian forests.
The hydroelectric potential of Peru is great, especially on the rivers that flow eastward out of the Andes Mountains to the Amazon Basin. Large power plants have been built on the Santa and Mantaro rivers, and other locations have been selected for future development. Most existing plants, both thermal and hydroelectric, have been connected to a coordinated national electric grid. About three-fourths of the country’s electrical energy is produced from hydroelectric sources; as a result, there are some shortages of power during times of drought. In the early 21st century, Peru pursued the development of natural gas as a more-accessible source of power. Much of the country’s power production and demand are in the Lima metropolitan area, where there is a heavy concentration of industry.
Manufacturing
Although the Peruvian government has tried to disperse industrial production, most Peruvian factories are located within the greater Lima area. To better utilize the country’s natural resources to achieve self-sustained growth, a strong push has been given to industries such as those producing petroleum, textiles, processed food, steel, cement, fertilizer, and chemicals. Many of these industries either were nationalized or benefited from special tax incentives and trade-protectionist policies during the 1970s; many were reprivatized in the 1990s.
Finance
The main institutions dealing with finance in Peru are the large state-owned banks, which control such areas as credit, currency regulation, bank regulation, and foreign exchange. Major financial institutions include the Central Reserve Bank of Peru, the National Bank, and the Development Finance Corporation. Peru’s national currency is the nuevo sol.
In the last decades of the 20th century, government monetary policies focused on inflation and foreign debt, which were serious problems in the 1970s and ’80s. By the mid-1990s, Peru had almost completely controlled inflation, and the growth of the country’s economy was among the fastest in the world. The Lima stock market now plays an important role in the national economy, particularly with the privatization of many former state-run industries.
Trade
Foreign trade has been a mainstay of the Peruvian economy since colonial times. The country has historically depended on imported manufactured products, a situation that prompted the government to subsidize import-substitution industries. Peru’s imports have consisted primarily of foodstuffs, consumer goods, transportation equipment, and machinery and component parts for Peruvian industries. Petroleum products formed an expensive share of Peru’s imports in the early 1970s, but increased domestic production, particularly from the Amazon area, turned Peru into a net exporter of oil by 1980. Other important exports have been such primary commodities as ores and minerals (gold, copper, silver, lead, and zinc, for example) and such agricultural products as cotton, sugar, and coffee. Fish meal, a leading export since the 1960s, continued to be important into the 21st century, as did gold, copper, zinc, clothing and textiles, agricultural and livestock products, and petroleum.
China and the United States are Peru’s major trading partners. Other trading partners include Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, and Argentina. In 1969 Peru became a charter member of the Andean Common Market (now Andean Community), but economic problems during the 1980s and early ’90s hampered implementation of trade policies, and Peru suspended its membership in 1992–97. Peru also belongs to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the World Trade Organization.
Services, labour, and taxation
The leading employment sectors in Peru have long been agriculture and fishing, mining, and manufacturing, while the services sector was relatively undeveloped. As the population and economy grew in the latter half of the 20th century, the percentage of agricultural workers declined, the mining and manufacturing sectors were relatively stable, and the services sector grew rapidly, employing some three-quarters of the workforce by the early 21st century. However, between 1980 and 1990, wages in Peru fell dramatically; the average manufacturing wage, for example, dropped by almost two-thirds. Although wages did increase in the 1990s, they were still well below 1980 levels at the end of the 20th century. As a result, few workers earn above the official poverty line, and many must work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Unionized workers in the mining and government sectors have done better than those employed in other areas.
A large percentage of Peruvian workers are employed in the “informal” economy, outside government regulation and taxation and without the protections offered by legal employment. Workers in the informal sector include street vendors, those employed in small workshops in squatter settlements, drivers of jitney taxis in larger urban areas, and women making tourist trinkets in their homes. Most informal workers are underemployed in jobs that provide only a limited amount of work (and income) per week.
From the mid-1990s, significant investment in the tourism sector has led to improvements in the country’s economy. Further growth of this sector is anticipated as the government promotes policies to develop tourist infrastructure in various parts of the country.
Transportation and telecommunications
Peru’s transportation system faces the challenge of the Andes and of the complex Amazon River system. River traffic in Amazonia is underdeveloped because of the vast distances and low population density of that area. Roadways cross the country from north to south, or they form penetration roads that run east–west over the Andes. The most important road is the Pan American Highway, which parallels the coast from Ecuador to Chile. Other main roads include the trans-Andean, or Central Highway, which follows the Rimac River Valley east from Lima, crossing the Andes and connecting to the Mantaro Valley near Huancayo, and another main road that connects Arequipa to Bolivia through the Andes.
The major Peruvian railroad, the Central Railway, rises from the coast at Callao near Lima to cross the continental divide at about 15,700 feet (4,800 metres). It connects with a branch line to Cerro de Pasco, making it of great importance to the mining industry of the central Andes. A longer line, the Southern Railway, serves Cuzco, Arequipa, and other cities and ports such as Puno on Lake Titicaca; some of its traffic originates in Bolivia. Callao, on the Pacific Ocean, is the largest of Peru’s numerous ports. Iquitos, located on the Amazon some 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from the river’s mouth, is the major river port of eastern Peru.
The rough terrain of Peru compels the use of the airplane, but it also complicates flight. Air transport is especially important in hard-to-reach places of the heavily forested east. Commercial aviation began in 1928, and several domestic companies operate in addition to numerous foreign airlines. Jorge Chávez International Airport, which serves Lima, is the most important of Peru’s airports. Arequipa, Cuzco, and Iquitos are served by international airports as well.
Landline telephone service in Peru is generally of adequate quality, and usage continued to increase from the early 1990s into the 21st century. The use of mobile phones skyrocketed during that same period of time, and usage surpassed that of the traditional land telephone service. Internet service, although limited, began to expand steadily at the beginning of the 21st century.
