Economy

The 5.5% growth foreseen for Peru's Gross Domestic Product this year is set to double the average rate expected for Latin America set at 2.8%, according the the latest economic analysis from LatinFocus Consensus Forecast. 

Latin American Development Bank (CAF) signed Wednesday the concession contract protocol which disburses the first US$ 150 million tranche to finance the third phase of the Peruvian Chavimochic multipurpose irrigation project. 

Mining & Energy

Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. announced in a press release the well test results from the Los Angeles-1X well located in Block 131 and gave an update on its Block 126, both located in the onshore Ucayali basin in Peru. The company gained its interest in both blocks through the Petrominerales Ltd. acquisition completed in late 2013. 

The Southern Energy Node project is set to foster the competitiveness across Peru's southern regions, easing the implementation of the Industrial National Development Plan (PNDI), Peru's private investment agency (ProInversion) said on Monday. 

Infrastructure

First, the hammer blows ring out across the neighborhood. Then the cement mixer begins its deafening rumble. It is 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning.

Here in Miraflores, one of Lima's more desirable districts, Peru's construction boom, driven by Latin America's most dynamic economy, is underway once again.

From Miraflores to some of the most far-flung Andean provinces, Peruvians of all classes are doing better than ever before. Many are buying new homes - bigger, better homes, in nicer neighborhoods. 

 

The Central Bank estimates construction sector growth of over +8% annually in 2014 and 2015, and while slowing from double-digit growth, the expected performance remains astounding. In infrastructure alone, the government expects to award over US $7B in contracts this year. The Lima subway line 2 and the new Cusco airport projects are both expected to be awarded at the end of February. 

Vinci SA (DG), Europe's biggest builder, is seeking airport concessions in countries from Chile to Peru to tap growing airline traffic as construction markets in France and central Europe struggle to expand.

"We want to develop Vinci Airports to capture the dynamism of the global airline traffic, which is growing faster that GDP everywhere in the world and should double by 2030," Vinci Chief Executive Officer Xavier Huillard said in Paris today.

Telecomm

Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones SA, Chile's second-biggest mobile-phone operator, fell to a five-year low on concern its operations in Peru may take longer than expected to reach profitability.

The stock dropped 4.4 percent , the lowest since October 2008, at the close of trading in Santiago. It was the worst performance today on Chile's 40-member IPSA index, which lost 0.3 percent. The shares have lost 20 percent in the past three months. 

 

Environment

For the first time, scientists have discovered how tree roots in the mountains may play an important role in controlling long-term global temperatures. Researchers from Oxford and Sheffield Universities suggests that mountainous ecosystems have acted like the Earth's thermostat, addressing the risk of 'catastrophic' overheating or cooling over millions of years.

Diplomacy

The Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) has approved, on behalf of the Council of the European Union, an agreement on a list of non-EU countries whose nationals are exempt from the visa requirement, including Peru and Colombia.

Fight Against Drugs

 In 2013, Peruvian authorities eradicated more than 23,947 hectares of plantations coca leaf, the main ingredient used to make cocaine, up significantly from the 14,234 hectares destroyed in 2012.

Peruvian authorities expect the figure to rise in 2014, given this year's strategy for eradicating illegal coca crops will target different coca regions simultaneously, according to the head of the Anti-Drug Directorate of the National Police of Peru (DIRANDRO), Vicente Romero Fern�ndez.

 

The Hague

Visual Arts

Pamela Gallegos is a Peruvian Artist born in Miami is the vision behind Pom Graphic Design. Living in a country with such a rich culture is where it all began.

 'She had this desire for travel and adventure since she was very little, and once she set foot in my first mystical trip, she started to feel the connection between the harmony in nature and the art within it, so then is when she decided to manifest it in her work.

Her drawing techniques consist of a mix of illustration with pencil and rapidograph pen and then adding color and texture in Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator. She graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.'

Miscellaneous

Before I ever met Virginia �u�oncca, I knew her face. In 2012, Oxfam connected �u�oncca, a farmer from a tiny village in the mountains of Peru, with a photojournalist from El Comercio newspaper. El Comercio featured her in its biennial photography exhibit, which focused on rights and inclusion.

 Even as a visitor to Peru attending the exhibit, I knew how unusual it was to see photos of, and quotes from, someone like �u�oncca-an indigenous woman from a rural Andean region-in an art gallery in downtown Lima. Her participation embodied Oxfam's efforts to close the gap between what journalist Marie Arana called the "two Perus": the thriving, bustling capital and the remote, poor villages of the countryside.