Geography, agriculture and the economy

The Republic of Peru is located in western South America and shares borders with Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. It is the fourth largest country in the Latin American region, covering an area of about 1.3 million km², and the fourth most populated, with about 27 million inhabitants. The population is growing at an annual rate of 1.5 per cent. Indigenous peoples represent about 38 per cent of the total population. Peru has the largest concentration of indigenous peoples in Latin America.

Geographically Peru is divided into three distinct zones:

• The narrow coastal plain (Costa) in the west, where Peru's major cities are located and where more than half of the population lives. It represents 11 per cent of Peru’s total area
• The Andes (Sierra, or highlands) in the centre, an arid, mountainous zone that covers about one fourth of the country’s total area. About 37 per cent of the country’s population live here. Most of them are indigenous subsistence farmers
• The lowland jungle (Selva) of the Amazon Basin in the east. The Selva includes vast Andean forest areas and a large part of the Amazon plain. Population density is low. Although the Selva represents more than 60 per cent of Peru’s total area, it has only about 10 per cent of the total population

Agriculture and the economy

During recent decades in Peru, economic development stagnated because of a protectionist economic policy. Private investment diminished, the public debt increased and inflation rates soared.

Adverse climatic conditions and guerrilla insurgencies further battered the economy. Over a ten-year period, losses caused by violence in the country were the equivalent of the total annual gross domestic product (GDP).

During the 1990s, the country drastically altered its economic policies and implemented a strong programme of stabilization and structural reform, designed to open up the economy and initiate the country’s reinsertion into the international financial system.

Currently, Peru is classified by the World Bank as a middle-income country. Estimated gross national income (GNI) per capita was US$2,140 in 2003. The average minimum monthly wage is about US$120. In 2003, estimated GDP amounted to US$60.6 billion and was growing at an annual rate of 3.8 per cent.

Agriculture employs about 30 per cent of the labour force and represents about 9 per cent of GDP. Peru’s agricultural zones include:

• irrigated valleys of the coastal belt, which account for 60 per cent of agricultural output
• Andean highlands, cultivated mainly by small farmers who produce basic foods for local consumption, accounting for about 25 per cent of agricultural output
• tropical lowlands, producing 15 per cent of agricultural output

Peru’s main agricultural exports are fish and fish products, coffee, sugar and cotton. The country also exports copper, zinc, gold, crude petroleum, petroleum by-products, and lead. Exports in 2003 topped imports by a slight margin.

In 1994 Peru had 1.7 million farms, occupying a total of 5.5 million ha of agricultural land. On average, farms in Peru are small. In the Sierra, 63 per cent of the zone’s 1.2 million farms are less than 3 ha in size.

Source: IFAD

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Peru capital: Lima GNI per capita: US$1,250 - 3,000 [more maps...] Explore... Rural poverty in Peru Progress on the Millennium Development Goals: United Nations Development Group (UNDG) United Nations Statistics World Bank Statistics Total population (million), 2003: 27.1 Population density (people per km2), 2003: 21.2 Number of rural poor (million) : 4.6 Poor as % of total rural population: 64.7 GNI per capita (US$), 2003: 2,140 Population living below US$1 a day (%), 2000: 18.1 Population living below US$2 a day (%), 2000: 37.7 Population living below the national poverty line (%), 1997: 49.0 Share of poorest 20% in national income or consumption (%), 2001: 2.9 Source: World Bank MORE more