Peru

Investment & 
Operational
Climate

Along with recent political instability – in 2022, President Dina Boluarte became Peru’s fifth president since 2020 – corruption and social conflict pose risks to Peru’s investment climate. Peru’s Ombudsman reported 162 active social conflicts in the country as of February 2023. More than half of them (95) occurred in the mining sector, which represents 10% of Peru’s economic output. Citing political instability, including governance challenges and contentious relations between the administration and congress, the three major credit rating agencies (Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P) downgraded Peru’s sovereign credit ratings between September 2021 and March 2022, but maintained Peru at investment grade. Private sector investment made up 79.9% of Peru’s total investment in 2022. Peru fosters an open investment environment, which includes strong protections for contract and property rights, and grants national treatment for foreign investors. Peru is well integrated in the global economy including with the United States through the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA), which entered into force in 2009 and helped drive more than $22bn in two-way trade in 2022. Peru’s investment promotion agency, ProInversion, seeks foreign investment in nearly all areas of the economy, particularly to support infrastructure. In the past few years, several companies from the region, and from China, North America, and Europe have begun actively buying local companies in key sectors such as energy generation and distribution, power transmission, fishmeal, and retail. Prospective investors would benefit from seeking local legal counsel to navigate Peru’s complex bureaucracy.