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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Peru
Index
By official measures of their contributions to the
gross
domestic product
(GDP--see Glossary)
at current prices, agriculture and fishing accounted for 22 percent of total
output in the 1950s but only 14 percent by 1990. Manufacturing
fell slightly from 23 percent in the 1950s to 22 percent in
1990. The share of mining increased from 6 percent in the 1950s to
11 percent in 1990. Services, construction, and government
combined rose from 52 percent in the 1950s to 53 percent by 1990
(see
fig. 8).
All such measures are subject to uncertainty in all
countries, but especially so in Peru. One reason is that
Peru's
national accounts have excluded illegal production of coca
and
its derivatives. Unofficial estimates suggest that their
value in
1989 would have added 4 percent to GDP for the year and 11
percent to the official value of agricultural production.
A
second reason for doubt is that Peru has an exceptionally
large
"informal sector" of unregulated activities, producing
many
services and some manufacturing outside of any official
framework
of reporting. Although the government includes estimates
of such
production in the national accounts and there is no
systematic
evidence that it has been either over- or underestimated,
no one
can be sure.
Data as of September 1992
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