President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Sunday night assured Peru will continue to reduce poverty steadily in the coming years thanks to the economic recovery that will be visible starting 2018.
"
Poverty reduction will continue because the [economic] slowdown will not continue," he told journalist Andrés Oppenheimer.
While explaining the reasons why Peruvian economy slowed its growth pace —one of the most sustained over recent years, which had previously reached rates of 7%— Mr. Kuczynski mentioned the heavy floods caused by
Coastal El Niño phenomenon, as well as the
Lava Jato graft case involving Brazilian company Odebrecht.
Nevertheless, the Head of State assured the
economy will
start to recover. Likewise, he underlined that there are very strong elements and "outbursts of optimism" in Peru in that sense.
As example, he mentioned the resumption of large projects —stopped by his administration for juncture-related reasons— such as Southern Gas Pipeline and Cusco region's
Chinchero International Airport, among others.
Mr. Kuczynski added that the
reconstruction of areas hit hard by the said climate phenomenon will contribute to providing an additional 1.5% growth to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Peru's top official also noted that some indicators have begun to improve, meaning domestic consumption and cement sales, as well as
copper prices on international markets. As is known, copper is one of Peru's top commodities.
"Then, I believe that all this will lead us to [economic] growth between 4% and 5% next year with very low public debt and very low inflation," he concluded.