por admin » Mar Jun 08, 2010 6:57 am
La popularidad de Garcia baja mientras la economia del Peru mejora.
En su primer mandato que finalizo en 1990 la economia del Peru habia disminuido 10%, la inflacion era de 7,000 por cient y la mitad del pais vivia en zonas declaradas en emergencia debido al surgimiento de las guerrillas Maoistas.
Dos decadas mas tarde, el mandatario bautizado por los Peruanos como Caballo Loco por la inestabilidad de sus politicas preside la economia de mayor crecimiento en Sudamerica, con una inflacion mas baja que la de Switzerland. Durante su primer gobierno, el Peru cayo en default en $14 billones de deuda. Desde entonces Garcia ha retornado al poder en el 2006. Desde entonces el pais ha ganado su primer grado de inversion en su historia.
El exito de la economia no ha ayudado a la aprobacion de Garcia, la cual se hundio a 26% el mes pasado. La hostilidad contra el presidente y el establecimiento politico aumenta la posibilidad de que Ollanta Humala, un aliado de Hugo Chavez tome el poder en las elecciones del proximo Abril dice John Crabtree, un investigados especialista en Latin America de Oxford University.
Este es una peligro muy grande, el producir un ganador populista en el 2011 dice Crabtree el autor del libro "Peru Under Garcia" Una Oportunidad Perdida" acerca de la primera administracion del presidente Peruano. "Mas gente esta desencantada con la democracia en el Peru que en cualquier otro pais en Latin America" agrego en una entreivsta telefonica.
La parobacion de garcia esta en 26% de acuerdo a Apoyo ha bajado de 29% en Marzo y 58% dos meses despues de haber sido elegido.
A pesar de que la economia ha mejorado, la pobreza y la corrupcion ha mantenido el descontento en niveles muy altos dice Eurasia Group un grupo especializado en riesgo politico basado en Washington.
Garcia ha enfocado su politica en la estabilidad macroeconomica y ha demostrado ser un administrador responsable con la esperanza de que el crecimiento se traduciria en lo sectores mas bajos, dijo Kerner en una entrevista telefonica desde NY, pero el no ha hecho mucho para aliviar la pobreza, se ha dedicado a asegurar que el Peru es un buen destino de inversion.
Peru, la sexta economia mas grande de la region esta repuntando mas rapido que sus vecinos de la recesion global. BAC dijo en Mayo que el Peru esta en su propia liga (separado de los demas) despues que su crecimiento se expandio 8.8 por ciento en los 12 meses anteriores a Marzo liderado por la construccion y la manufactura. El IMF pronostica un crecimiento de 6.3% este anio y es la mas alta del Western Hemisferio.
La inversion directa en el pais se espera que llegue a la cifra record de $8.4 billones en el 20100 de acuerdo a BAC. El pais se convirtio en un net creditor en el 2007, sus reservas han subido al record de $35 billones. Cuesta menos proteger la deduda del Peru que la de Brasil.
El sol se ha fortalecido 14% contra el dolar desde que Garcia es presidente, el Lima General Index ha ganado 74% en dolares comparado con 80% de Chile y 95% en Brasil (bolsas)
El crecimiento del Peru se ha visto favorecido por los altos precios de los commodities incluyendo el oro y el cobre, lso cuales son el 75% de las exportaciones, dijo Cesar Ferrari.
Garcia se subio a una buena ola, dijo Ferrari durante una entrevista en Colombia.
Garcia abogado de la Sorbona en Paris ha abandonado su hostilidad contra el IMF y ha mantenido politicas de libre mercado establecidas por Fujimori y toledo.
Ideologicamente ha dado una pirueta de 180 grados.
Fujimori elimino los controles de precios, puso a la moneda flotante y vendio cientos de companias estatales que solo perdian dinero cuando fue presidente entre 1990 y el anio 2000. Toledu su sucesor ayudo a asegurar las inversiones en infraestructura y energia incluyendo Hunt Oil $4 billones planta de gas natural licuado. Toledo tambien inicio los tratados de libre comercio con US, Euroa y China.
Garcia no ha implementado programas sociales como Lula en Brasil para mejorar su popularidad, Brasil ha sacado de la pobreza a 30 millones de personas desde el 2003.
Garcia no contesto el pedido de una entrevista para este articulo.
En el 2008 la pobreza en el Peru era 36.2 por ciento comparado con 25.8 por ciento en Brasil.
Los votantes acusan a Garcia de corrupcion, solo el 14% piensa que su gobierno no es corrupto.
Humala Factor
El fracaso de Garcia de ganar en el voto popular puede amenazar la estabilidad economica y la inversion extranjera si la candidatura de Humala se cristaliza, dice Kerner. Garcia le gano a Humala 52.5 por ciento contra 47.5 por ciento en la segunda vuelta en el 2006.
Humala se opone a los acuerdos de libre comercio y ha amenazado renegociar los contratos mineros.
El apoyo a Humala es fuerte entre los mas pobres de las zonas rurales donde el beneficio economico no se ha sentido, dice Crabtree. Mientras en Lima el 15% de las casas no tienen agua potable y desague, el numero sube al 80% en Huancavelica
Humala de 46 anios, tiene el apoyo del 13% de los entrevistados, Castaneda 22%, seguido por Keiko Fujimori quien ha prometido el perdon a su padre.
BAC dijo que toda preferencia por Humala desencadanera caida en los precios de los activos y salida del capital.
Solo el 22% de los Peruanos dice estar satisfecho con la democracia, el mas bajo entre 18 paises en Latinoamerica.
La desigualdad, la poblacion y la corrupcion son cosas combinadas que crean la demanda por el cambio en amplios sectores de la poblacion, dijo Kerner.
Peru President Garcia’s Popularity Sinks as Economy Booms
By Matthew Bristow and John Quigley
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- When Alan Garcia’s first term as president of Peru ended in 1990, the economy had shrunk by 10 percent, inflation was raging at 7,000 percent, and half the population lived in government-declared emergency zones where Maoist guerrillas were active.
Two decades later, the man Peruvians nicknamed “Crazy Horse” for his unstable policies presides over South America’s fastest-growing economy, with lower inflation than Switzerland. During the first Garcia administration, Peru defaulted on $14 billion in debt. Since he returned to power in 2006, the country won its first ever investment-grade rating.
The economic success hasn’t lifted Garcia’s approval rating, which sank to 26 percent last month. Hostility to the president, and the political establishment, increases the chance of Ollanta Humala, an ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, taking power in elections next April to choose Garcia’s succesor, said John Crabtree, a Latin America researcher at Oxford University.
There is a “sizable danger” that the 2011 vote will produce a populist winner, said Crabtree, the author of “Peru Under Garcia: An Opportunity Lost,” about the first Garcia administration. “More people are disenchanted by the way in which democracy works in Peru than in any other country in Latin America,” he added in a telephone interview from Oxford.
Garcia’s approval rating stands at 26 percent, according to an Ipsos Apoyo Opinion y Mercado poll taken May 12-14 for Lima’s El Comercio newspaper. That’s down from 29 percent in March and a high of 58 percent two months after he took office. The poll of 1,200 people had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.
Bubbling Discontent
Even though the economy has performed well under Garcia, poverty and corruption have kept discontent bubbling at dangerous levels, said Daniel Kerner, an analyst for the Eurasia Group, a Washington-based political risk group.
Garcia “focused on maintaining macroeconomic stability and proving that he was a responsible administrator, with the hope that growth would trickle down,” said Kerner in a telephone interview from New York. “He never did much to alleviate poverty, other than try to guarantee that Peru remained a good destination for investment.”
Peru, South America’s sixth largest economy, is rebounding faster than its neighbors from the global recession. Bank of America said in a May report that Peru “is in a growth league of its own” after gross domestic product expanded 8.8 percent in the 12 months to March, led by construction and manufacturing. The International Monetary Fund forecasts growth of 6.3 percent this year, the most in the Western Hemisphere.
Record Investment
Foreign direct investment is expected to reach a record $8.4 billion in 2011, according to Bank of America. The country became a net creditor in 2007, as reserves soared to a record $35 billion. It costs less to protect Peru’s debt against default than it does for bonds issued by Brazil, which share its Baa3 investment grade rating by Moody’s Investors Service.
The sol has strengthened 14 percent against the U.S. dollar since Garcia took office in July 2006, and the Lima General Index has gained 74 percent in dollar terms, compared with 80 percent for Chile’s IPSA index and 95 percent for Brazil’s Bovespa index.
Peru’s fast growth has been driven by high prices for commodities including gold and copper, which account for 75 percent of exports, said Cesar Ferrari, who served as Garcia’s general manager of the central bank from 1987-1988.
“Garcia caught a good wave,” Ferrari said during an interview in Bogota, Colombia.
180 Degree Pirouette
Garcia, 61, a lawyer trained at the Sorbonne University in Paris, has abandoned his former hostility to the IMF and foreign capital, said Crabtree. Instead, he’s maintained the market- friendly policies established by Presidents Alberto Fujimori and Alejandro Toledo.
“Ideologically he has pirouetted around 180 degrees,” Crabtree said.
Fujimori eliminated price controls, floated the currency and sold off hundreds of unprofitable state companies while president from 1990 to 2000. Toledo, his successor, helped secure investments in infrastructure and energy, including Hunt Oil Co.’s $4 billion liquefied natural gas plant. Toledo also initiated talks that led to free-trade agreements with the U.S., the European Union and China.
Popularity Falling
There has been no equivalent under Garcia of the social programs of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which have lifted 30 million people out of poverty since 2003 and helped keep Lula’s approval ratings at a record 76 percent, said Kerner. Brazil’s minimum wage has increased more than fivefold in dollar terms over that time, while more than 9 million government-registered jobs were created.
Garcia did not respond to requests for an interview and his press office did not comment for this article.
In 2008, the most recent year for which statistics are available, poverty was 36.2 percent in Peru, compared with 25.8 percent in Brazil, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America.
Voters blame Garcia for corruption scandals within his American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, or APRA, such as the sale of public land at discount prices to party members. Only 14 percent of Peruvians think that Garcia was “free from acts of corruption”, according to the Ipsos Apoyo poll.
Humala Factor
Garcia’s failure to win popular backing may jeopardize economic stability and foreign investment by boosting the expected candidacy of Humala, said Kerner. Garcia defeated Humala by 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent in a 2006 runoff.
Humala opposed a free trade deal with the U.S. and threatened to renegotiate contracts with foreign mining companies that include BHP Billiton Ltd. and Anglo American Plc. As an army lieutenant colonel, he led an uprising in 2000 against Fujimori, seizing the mining town of Toquepala. The event ended without bloodshed, and congress later voted to pardon him.
Humala’s backing is strongest among the poor in the rural Andean highlands outside of the capital, where the benefit of economic growth has been scarcely felt, said Crabtree. Whereas in Lima, 15 percent of homes don’t have access to running water and sewage, that number rises to 80 percent in Huancavelica, a neighboring province, according to a UN study in April.
Humala, 46, had the support of 13 percent of those surveyed by Ipsos, tied with Toledo. Lima’s Mayor Luis Castaneda, with 22 percent support, is the frontrunner. He’s followed by Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori, who has vowed to pardon her father, in jail for his role in paramilitary massacres of rebel sympathizers.
Any advance by Humala in pre-election polls is likely to lower asset prices and spark capital outflows, Bank of America said in a report last month. Garcia is banned by the constitution from seeking two consecutive terms and his APRA party has not yet selected a candidate.
Only 22 percent of Peruvians say they are satisfied with their democracy, the lowest among 18 countries in Latin America, according to a 2009 survey by Latinobarometro, a Santiago, Chile-based pollster.
“Inequality, poverty, corruption--all those things combine to create this demand for change from wide segments of the electorate,” said Kerner.