Peru

Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean civilizations, most notably that of the Incas whose empire was captured by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Peruvian independence was declared in 1821, and remaining Spanish forces defeated in 1824. After a dozen years of military rule, Peru returned to democratic leadership in 1980, but experienced economic problems and the growth of a violent insurgency. President Alberto FUJIMORI's election in 1990 ushered in a decade that saw a dramatic turnaround in the economy and significant progress in curtailing guerrilla activity. Nevertheless, the president's increasing reliance on authoritarian measures and an economic slump in the late 1990s generated mounting dissatisfaction with his regime, which led to his ouster in 2000. A caretaker government oversaw new elections in the spring of 2001, which ushered in Alejandro TOLEDO Manrique as the new head of government - Peru's first democratically elected president of Native American ethnicity. The presidential election of 2006 saw the return of Alan GARCIA Perez who, after a disappointing presidential term from 1985 to 1990, has overseen a robust macroeconomic performance.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Nuevo Sol (ISO code: PEN)
* Central bank discount rate: 1.25% (31 November 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 23.67% (31 December 2008)
* Stock of money (M1): $15.48 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $25.27 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Peru: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	51 510	53 290	53 936	56 772	61 347	69 725	79 385	92 320	107 492	129 109
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Peru: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	31.249	27.117 	24.348
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Peru: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	17.236	17.411	16.622	16.177	16.544	16.483	17.627	19.153	19.933 	19.603
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Peru: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28.	17.352	17.871	17.599	17.000	17.014	16.648	17.270	16.412	16.996 	16.525
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	1.632 	1.360 	1.242
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Peru on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Peru
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
* Peru: What Happened on the Way to the Free Market (pdf), by Murray N. Rothbard, July 1990
Category:Countries