Peru´s Business and Investment Guide 2016-2017

Peru is one of the most important countries in Latin America. Its diverse characteristics include a variety of climates, a vast territorial expanse, significant natural resources, people with great skills and high academic standards, and a solid economic and industrial background. Today, Peru is considered one of the world’s leading emerging markets, with a solid recent history of economic stability based on an uninterrupted average annual growth over the past 15 years of 5.3% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as a people who are notable for their productivity and entrepreneurship. These factors make Peru an excellent destination for foreign investment.

This Business and Investment Guide is a tool for foreign and national investors, providing key information on the country’s current economic situation and the principal tax, legal, and labor issues, as well as on how to incorporate businesses in Peru, and general information on how to invest and do business in the country. It also contains a complete index of Peru's embassies and consulates abroad, as well as contacts of interest to investors.

From the beginning of the new millennium through 2014, Peru has achieved an impressive cumulative growth of 116% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) accompanied by a cumulative inflation during the same period of just 52%, the best rates of their kind in all Latin America. In monetary terms, poverty has been reduced by half in recent years, with more Peruvians living in better conditions, with a brighter future. Peru is a true economic miracle nearly 20 years after the end of its history of hyperinflation and terrorism, which have given way to the best possible conditions of stability, respect, and promotion of investment in the Region, becoming the sixth-largest economy in South America—measured in purchasing power parity—after Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. Together with this economic progress, national pride has experienced sustained growth, rooted in our knowledge that we will continue to conquer the world together as a result of our own effort. This pride also stems from the rich historical legacy that has influenced our flourishing awareness of what it means to be Peruvian, manifested, for example, in our cuisine and tourist attractions. Effectively, our entrepreneurial nature, as well as the exploitation and processing of our riches, are changing our cities markedly, along with our way of life, and articulating a new Peru.

Principal industries in the different regions of Peru

This growth comes with the challenge of sustaining it, which in turn demands an increase in productivity based on improvements in educational quality, infrastructure, domestic security, productive efficiency and modernity, the reduction of bureaucracy, and the implementation of much-needed reforms. Indeed, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita measured in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) estimated at approximately US$11,989 for 2014, in the short term, Peru will cross a development threshold where it will be forced to avoid falling into a group of nations inserted in the so-called “middle-income trap”. This trap occurs when the growth of GDP per capita slows considerably after a period of rapid growth (generally, when the PPP reaches US$10,000 to US$15,000) and could be attributed to a phenomenon of complacency with the relative success achieved, causing the continuous reforms so necessary for progress to stagnate. With all of this, Peru is just beginning its “demographic bonus” period, where 65% of its population between the ages of 15 and 64 reach their highest records of production, consumption, savings, and investment. Therefore it cannot fail to take advantage of this historic moment of definitive consolidation, as a country making the jump from a developing economy, to a developed nation. 

Some of the challenges and opportunities that our Peru has prioritized in order to maintain the economic stability it has worked so hard to achieve are as follows: the concrete challenges of vanquishing poverty and extreme poverty; prioritizing investment in technological innovation and improving the quality of education; fostering private investment and infrastructure investment and positioning itself in the Region as a bustling hub of international commerce, thanks to the implementation of treaties strategically signed with the world’s primary economies; sustaining a powerful domestic demand; consolidating itself as an international reference point in cuisine and tourism; improving the management of public health, domestic security, and the environment; implementing a revamped, efficient, and committed public administration; resolving social conflicts in a timely manner; fighting corruption; fostering social inclusion; fighting against drug trafficking and eliminating the remnants of terrorism.

Peru is growing rapidly and, consequently, there are new and better business opportunities.