Peru deals new blow to Latin America’s left

(Photo: Karel Navarro Pando – Bloomberg)

Here’s what’s most remarkable about Peru’s April 10 first-round election, which will result in a June 5 runoff vote between Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski: Nearly 80 percent of the people voted against a Venezuelan-like leftist-populist model.

Evolution won, revolution lost. It was a very significant result, because it showed that Peru’s more than two decades of continued pro-investment economic policies are paying off.

Peru’s economy has grown steadily and poverty has gone down dramatically over the past two decades, most recently without the autocratic rule and political repression that we have seen in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and other leftist-populist countries.

Consider Peru’s statistics:

Since 1990, Peru’s economy has grown at a yearly average of 4.7 percent, mostly without the boom and bust cycles of its neighbors. This year, Peru is expected to grow by 3.7 percent, which will be one of Latin America’s best economic performances, according to International Monetary Fund projections.

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