I’ve missed a lot of fun today, what with Bennyboy swapping debt at 3% interest for debt at o%, but just this story and thence to bed.
Looks like Twobreakfasts has finally had the penny drop. As IKN has said since gawd knows when, Peru will not grow at 6.5%, not even the last downward revised 5%. And thus, Alan suddenly changes his tune from the “relax, be optimistic, don’t worry, be happy, recession is for others” to today’s need to “act urgently”. Now the race is on for the region’s worst President to find a way to save face, and what better than those lazy regional politicians.
Ok, the guy is a two-faced breakfast, but at least he now recognizes there is a problem to confront. A dose of realism will help things and hopefully it’s not too late. Here’s Reuters with a better text than mine:
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LIMA, March 17 (Reuters) – Peruvian President Alan Garcia lashed out at bureaucrats on Tuesday, telling them to show their “patriotism” by working harder to implement an economic stimulus package as a slowdown hits the Andean country.
Garcia’s comments came a day after Peru was stung by its weakest monthly economic data in nearly five years, which could hurt Garcia’s approval rating, now at 34 percent.
Peru, which had been one of Latin America’s fastest growing economies, grew just 3.14 percent in January from the same month a year earlier, well below the 9.8 percent rate of 2008, which was a 14-year high.
“We need more patriotic spirit to approve public works,” Garcia said at a road opening ceremony in Tarapoto, a town in northern Peru.
“There are hundreds of public works that are stalled because Peru has bad bureaucrats who are scared of implementing them and putting the country first,” he said.
The president also told his cabinet, provincial leaders, and mayors to act “urgently” to create jobs and build infrastructure projects.
Garcia has unveiled a stimulus package that includes about $3.1 billion in investments in its first phase, but critics have said its effectiveness may be undermined by a slow-moving bureaucracy and a reliance on provincial governments.
The government says the stimulus package will help keep economic growth at 5.0 percent this year, but the Lima Chamber of Commerce said expansion could be as little as 2.8 percent, and Morgan Stanley has cut its projection to 0.9 percent.