Peru’s economy grew 3% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier—the slowest quarterly expansion in nearly two years—as shrinking investments offset robust mining activity and natural gas drilling, official data showed, Nasdaq reported. Central government investments plummeted 48% in the fourth quarter, contributing to a 9% drop in construction, state statistics agency Inei said in a statement. Private investments fell 3.5% in the quarter. The October-December period was the first full quarter overseen by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who took office in late July with promises to revive domestic demand with infrastructure projects. However, a bigger-than-expected fiscal deficit that Kuczynski inherited from the previous government has delayed those plans. Sharp spending cuts in the fourth quarter helped trim the fiscal deficit to 2.7% of gross domestic product last year. The fourth quarter reading marked the slowest year-on-year quarterly expansion since the first three months of 2015. But in all of 2016, the economy grew 3.9% thanks to a surge in copper production that offset a drop in manufacturing, construction and tepid growth in retail sales and services.
