Peru had a current account deficit of 1.3% of the gross domestic product in 2017, its smallest in the last eight years, thanks to higher revenues from its mining exports, the central bank said, Reuters reported. The current account is the broadest measure of a country’s foreign transactions encompassing trade, services and financial flows including interest payments. The deficit in 2016 was 2.7% of GDP. “Our external accounts were favored mainly by an increase in the trade surplus of 1.9% thanks to better prices that contributed to higher mining product exports,” the bank said in a statement. An increase in fish export revenue contributed to the shrinkage of the current account deficit as well, the bank said. In the fourth quarter of last year, the current account registered a deficit of 1.6% of GDP versus a surplus of 0.5% in the same 2016 period. Meanwhile, Peru’s economy is at “grave risk” of a systemic crisis within its construction sector, as companies under investigation for corruption could be forced to halt projects, Finance Minister Claudia Cooper said recently.
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