Peru Still Wary of Garcia’s Past

Alan Garcia has been re-elected as president of Peru, despite leaving his country with a 5 percent approval rating and $900 million less in its reserves at the end of his previous term in 1990. Garcia enters office with new plans on changing Peru’s highly stratified society, with its 52 percent poverty rate, according to journalist Robert Plummer. Hopefully for the people of Peru, Garcia has abandoned his old tropes of excess spending for the sake of the underprivileged, leading to massive inflation and increased poverty. Since his departure from the presidency, Peru has averaged a 4 to 5 percent growth rate per year, and has rekindled a relationship with the International Monetary Fund, resulting in the distribution of loans to support Peru’s market-based economic reforms. Considered the “lesser of two evils,” Garcia has an opportunity to show new understanding of economic reform, and help Peru eliminate poverty without plunging the country into increased debt. – YaleGlobal