Peru :: essays research papers

PeruPerus gross domestic product in the late 1980s was $19.6 billion, orabout $920 per capita. Although the economy remain primarily agricultural, themining and fishing industries have become increasingly important. Peru reliesprimarily on the export of raw materialschiefly minerals, farm products, andfish mealto accomplish foreign exchange for importing machinery and manufacturedgoods. During the late 1980s, guerrilla violence, rampant inflation, chronicbudget deficits, and drought combined to drive the country to the brink of monetary insolvency. However, in 1990 the government imposed an austerity programthat removed price controls and ended subsidies on many basic items and allowedthe inti, the national currency, to float against the United States dollar. virtually 35 percent of Perus working population is engaged in farming.Most of the coastal area is devoted to the raising of export crops on the montaa and the sierra are mainly grown crops for local consumption. Many farms inPeru are very small and are used to produce subsistence crops the country alsohas overlarge cooperative farms. The chief agricultural products, together with theapproximate annual yield (in metric tons) in the late 1980s, were sugarcane (6.2million), potatoes (2 million), rice (1.1 million), corn (880,000), seed cotton(280,000), coffee (103,000), and wheat (134,000). Peru is the worlds leadinggrower of coca, from which the drug cocaine is refined.The livestock population included about 3.9 million cattle, 13.3 millionsheep, 1.7 million goats, 2.4 million hogs, 875,000 horses and mules, and 52million poultry. Llamas, sheep, and vicuas provide wool, hides, and skins.The forests covering 54 percent of Perus land area have not beensignificantly exploited. Forest products include balsa ram down and balata gum,rubber, and a variety of medicinal plants. Notable among the latter is thecinchona plant, from which quinine is derived. The annual roundwood harvest inthe late 1980s was 7.7 m illion cu m.The fishing industry is extremely important to the countrys economy andaccounts for a significant portion of Perus exports. It underwent a remarkableexpansion after World War II (1939-1945) the gather in in the late 1980s was about5.6 million metric tons annually. More than three-fifths of the catch isanchovies, used for making fish meal, a product in which Peru leads the world.The extractive industries figure significantly in the Peruvian economy.Peru ranks as one of the worlds leading producers of copper, silver, lead, andzinc petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, molybdenum, tungsten, and gold areextracted in significant quantities. yearbook production in the late 1980sincluded 3.3 million metric tons of iron ore 406,400 metric tons of copper