page_title: Arequipa
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Arequipa / Economy
caption_attribution_description: Español: Vista Panorámica de un sector del "Parque Industrial de Arequipa"
context_page_description: Arequipa is a city located in the province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru." It is the second most populated city in Peru, after Lima, with an urban population of 1,008,290 inhabitants according to the 2017 national census.
  Its metropolitan area integrates twenty-one districts, including the foundational central area, which it is the seat of the city government. The city has a Nominal GDP of 9,445 million and a nominal GDP per capita of US$10,277, which represents a GDP per capita PPP of US$18,610 in the period 2015, being the second city with the highest economic activity in Peru.
  Arequipa is also an important industrial and commercial center of Peru, and is considered as the second industrial city of the country. Within its industrial activity the manufactured products and the textile production of wool of camelids. The town maintains close commercial links with Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil and with the cities connected by the South trainway, as well as with the port of Matarani.
context_section_description: 74.2% of the Department of Arequipa's GDP is generated by the city of Arequipa, according to studies by the National University of San Agustin. The Department of Arequipa's GDP is the second highest in Peru, after that of the Department of Lima. From 2003 to 2008, Arequipa was the "city with the greatest economic growth in Latin America" with a 66.1% increase in GDP per capita, according to a 2009 report of "America Economia."
  According to a government survey, Arequipa has the largest "workforce" in Peru with 625,547 people, and an economically active population (PEA) which amounts to 376,764 people having an employment rate similar to the national average with an average monthly income of 928 soles. The main economic sectors for the economically active population are manufacturing (12.9%), trade (23%), and non-personal services (36.6%). The unemployment rate in the Arequipa metropolitan area is 8%, compared to only 5% unemployment in Arequipa city proper.
  In Arequipa, tourism is a vital contributor to the local economy, as the city is the third most visited city in the country after Cusco and Lima. In 2010, Arequipa received a total of 1.395 million visitors according to the Ministry of Commerce and Tourism.
  Since the 20th century, many factories tied to the primary sector, especially textiles and agriculture, have emerged. Arequipa's serves as an important commercial and industrial hub in the southern Andes, linking the coast to the mountains.
  Large-scale mining also contributes to the city's economy; as is the case of Cerro Verde, a mining site established in 1993 near the Arequipa valley.
  The city's industrial sector has the largest nationwide diversification and is the second most industrialized city of Peru. After two major earthquakes in 1958 and 1960, with the law of the "Rehabilitation and Development Board of Arequipa," an industrial complex was built with one of the first factories being the Yura cement factory (Cementos Yura).
  This first industrial complex named Parque Industrial de Arequipa now has a great diversity of factories ranging from consumer-related industries (food and beverages) and construction (PVC, cement, and steel) to chemical and export products (textile companies). Among the most important companies are Alicorp SAA, Processed Foods SA, Laive, La Iberica, Manuel Muñoz Najar, Bin Pan SA, Consorcio Industrial Arequipa SA, Omniagro, Backus & Johnston, Corporación Aceros Arequipa, Francky and Ricky, Michell & Cia, and IncaTops. Moreover, the city's industrial sector has expanded and other industrial complexes have emerged such as Parque Industrial APIMA (developed for small businesses), Parque Industrial Rio Seco  and industrial areas in the Alfonso Ugarte Ave, Uchumayo Road and the northern part of the city.
  On 15 August 1959, the first television transmission in the city of Arequipa was broadcast at the Cultural Hall of the National University of San Agustin. Businessman Jack Dwyre conducted the broadcast through his new company Televisora Sur Peruana in partnership with San Agustin National University as Channel 2 (now TV UNSA). The aforementioned university became one of the first in South America to operate a public TV station from inside its campus. Since then, two other public television stations began to operate in Arequipa—Radio Television Continental (Channel 6) in 1962 and Compañía de Radiodifusión Arequipa (Channel 8) in 1987 (broadcasting as ATV Sur since 2012).
  Among the newspapers that are printed in the city, El Pueblo is the oldest in Arequipa (published since 1 January 1905) and the second oldest in the country.  Writers such as Percy Gibson and Alberto Hidalgo as well as politicians like Hector Cornejo Chavez, Mario Polar Ugarteche and Alfonso Montesinos started their careers working for this newspaper.
caption: Partial view of the industrial zone of Arequipa (Parque Industrial de Arequipa) located in the southern part of the city.
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