Peru’s economy could grow more than 4% in 2018 if private investment picks up, particularly in infrastructure, Economy Minister Claudia Cooper said, Reuters reported. “The main variable is private investment,” Cooper said in an interview on local radio station RPP. “We could easily grow more than 4%.” Peru’s GDP will probably expand 4-4.5% in 2018 driven by infrastructure and mining investment projects, according to Banco de Credito del Peru, which raised its growth forecast from earlier projections of 3-3.5%. The bank also forecast a $6.8 billion trade surplus, 2.5% inflation and a 3.5% fiscal deficit. Meanwhile, Peru’s mining production contracted by 1.6% in October as half-a-dozen major metals posted lower output, the government said in a preliminary report. At the same time, manufacturing led by steel and precious metals refining, which is tracked a month earlier, shrank 2.6% in September, the statistics office said in a statement. Production of copper, Peru’s biggest export earner, slid 1.4% in October, while silver (-8.1%), tin (-7.6%), lead (-2.6%), iron ore (-53.2%) and molybdenum (-3.8%) also saw lower output, according to the agency.
