[Last updated: 1 January 2025, unless otherwise noted]

1.1 Peruvian economy

In the early 2000s, Peru experienced sustained and remarkable economic development, becoming one of the fastest growing countries while maintaining a low inflation rate. However, in the last decade, growth has been affected, to a large extent, due to international circumstances. However, local factors, mainly of a political nature, have also played a role in slowing down the country's growth.

The successful growth of Peru was caused by solid economic policies introduced by the various democratically-elected governments, sustained productivity growth, private investment and the country's integration into the world economy. These factors helped to reduce poverty and strengthen the middle class, turning the country into a popular place to invest in Latin America.

The macroeconomic development of Peru during the period from 2003 to 2013 was impressive, with a real gross domestic product (GDP) annual growth rate that averaged 6.6% (the highest rate in Latin America). However, in 2014, growth reached only 2.4%, improving at the end of 2015 to 3.3%. The slowdown was caused by external factors that lead to a decrease in real exports and foreign capital flows, as well as a reduction in the price of ores exported by Peru. After that, the growth rate experienced a slight increase, reaching 3.9% in 2016, before slowing down again in 2017 to 2.5%, rising in 2018 to 4.0% and then crunching once more to 2.3% in 2019. This last period was characterized by the political uncertainty caused by the constitutional shut down of the Congress and ongoing investigations against important political and business figures as part of Operation Lava Jato. Despite that being a low figure, Peru was the second fastest growing economy in Latin America during 2019, only behind Colombia, and has the economy with the lowest risk in the region, according to reports of the Peruvian Central Bank.

During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had an important impact on the Peruvian economy as its GDP dropped 11.0% as compared to 2019, despite the efforts of the Peruvian government to contain the spread of the virus and mitigate its impact in the economy. 2021 showed a recovery of 13.3% in comparison to the year 2020 as a result of the increase in commodity prices and the implementation of a vaccination program that allowed for restrictions impacting the economy to be progressively lifted.

In the years that followed, the political arena was marked by uncertainty due to the victory of Pedro Castillo in the presidential elections of 2021. His government was characterized by constant corruption scandals which escalated to the president attempting a failed coup in December 2022, causing his immediate removal as president and incarceration. After these events, Castillo's vice-president, Dina Boluarte, assumed and currently maintains the presidency. These events caused significant social unrest which resulted in important economic losses throughout the country. Even after the protests ended, the new government was not free of heavy criticism, with historically low approval levels.

In such an instable political context, the Peruvian economy experienced little growth during the years 2022 and 2023, with rates of 2.7% and 0.6%, respectively. A minor improvement is estimated by the Peruvian Central Bank for the last year. According to its last inflation report, Peru will reach a 3.0% rate of growth for the year 2024.

1.2 The Peruvian securities market

There are 262 entities registered in the Peruvian Public Capital Markets Registry (Registro Público del Mercado de Valores) with either debt or equity securities listed on the Lima Stock Exchange.

The Lima Stock Exchange also participates in the Latin America Integrated Market (Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano or the "MILA"), which attempts to integrate the stock exchange markets of Colombia, Chile, Peru and Mexico under one trading platform. Trading on the Lima Stock Exchange is primarily done on a new electronic trading system called Millennium, which became operational in May 2015 and has the support of the London Stock Exchange.

Furthermore, since the year 2022, the stock exchanges of Peru, Chile and Colombia have been working on the implementation of a regional and more comprehensive integration of their own. After obtaining authorizations from all competent regulators, a corporate integration of the three exchanges was effected in November 2023. As a result, all three exchanges share the same holding company under the name NUAM Exchange. Currently, the exchanges continue to work together towards the creation of a fully integrated market for the three countries.

The stock market capitalization of companies listed on the Lima Stock Exchange is currently US$185.56 billion, surpassing its pre-pandemic levels.