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Peru Foreign Trade and the Balance of Payments
Foreign trade has always been a crucial factor in
Peruvian
economic growth, sometimes as a major stimulus and
sometimes more
as a source of disruptive shocks. Falling external demand
can set
the whole economy back quickly, and at all times import
competition can constrain the development of domestic
industries.
Many Peruvians believe that the society would be healthier
and
the economy more dynamic if foreign trade were tightly
restricted. Many others favor taking maximum advantage of
the
opportunities opened up by external trade, even if the
structure
of production were pulled toward export specialization at
the
cost of greater diversification and industrialization.
Data as of September 1992
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