The Agriculture and Economics of Peru

Peru's gross domestic product in the late 1980s was $19.6 billion, or about $920 per capita. Although the economy remains primarily agricultural, the mining and
fishing industries have become increasingly important. Peru relies primarily on the export of raw materials--chiefly minerals, farm products, and fish meal--to earn
foreign exchange for importing machinery and manufactured goods. During the late 1980s, guerrilla violence, rampant inflation, chronic budget deficits, and
drought combined to drive the country to the brink of fiscal insolvency. However, in 1990 the government imposed an austerity program that removed price controls
and ended subsidies on many basic items and allowed the inti, the national currency, to float against the United States dollar.
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