Global minerals exporter Peru posted a $477 million trade deficit in January, marking a 14% widening of the trade shortfall against the same month a year earlier, central bank data showed on Saturday, Reuters reported. The country posted a $210 million trade surplus in December and a $2.86 billion trade deficit in all of 2015, the biggest annual shortfall on record, according to central bank data. December’s surplus was the first in 11 months, it said. This was the biggest shortfall on record for the world No. 3 copper producer, due to the global downturn in commodity prices.
