Peru's mining industry accounts for a bigger slice of GDP than 20 years ago, the government said.

 Mining and hydrocarbons now account for 14.4% of Peru's US$202bn GDP, up from 4.7% as calculated using 1994 as a base year, according to the national statistics bureau (INEI).  

Hochschild Mining Plc has canceled dividend payments until its financial situation improves, its latest cost-cutting measure as it tackles the impact of weak precious metals prices on the profitability of its mainly Peru-based operations.  

Exports of Peruvian grapes to China are set to reach 38,400 tonnes for the 2013/14 season, generating an income of US$95.2m, according to Miguel G�lvez Escobar of the Peruvian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (Capechi).

This represents a 25 per cent increase on the previous season, during which 28,800 tonnes were exported to the Asian giant, G�lvez said. By the end of February, shipments stood at 37,700 tonnes, with a value of US$92.2m.

Peru is the world's largest producer of cocaine and only interdicts about 8 percent of the drug. Some legislators favor a tougher approach to stop its export. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, cocaine-ferrying planes dotted Peru's skies. Now they're back: the US State Department says small planes are now the "primary method of transporting cocaine" out of the country, replacing sea transport.

Millions of years ago, aquatic sloths roamed shallow waters off the coast of modern-day Chile and Peru. These now-extinct swimmers had highly dense bones that facilitated their transition from land to sea by helping them sink to seafloors to graze on vegetation, according to a new report.  

Tourism in Peru's northern Ancash region generates more than 238 million soles (US$84.9mn) in local economic activity every year, according to a tourism official.

The Spaniards Juan Bonilla and Rafael Chirbers alongside the Colombian Juan Gabriel Vasquez are the nominees for the first edition of the Biennial Mario Vargas Llosa Novel Award.

The Mario Vargas Llosa Chair announced Tuesday that Vasquez has been nominated for 'Las Reputaciones' (Alfaguara), while Bonilla and Chirbers were shortlisted for 'Prohibido entrar sin pantalones' (Seix Barral) and 'En la orilla' (Anagrama), respectively.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has announced its new class of Young Global Leaders, and four of the honorees are from Peru.

The four Young Global Leaders from Peru are Augusto Townsend Klinge, the economics editor of the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, Claudia Belmont Gra�a, director of the Belcorp Foundation (charitable arm of the Belcorp cosmetics corporation), Gonzalo Begazo of soft drink giant AJE Group, and Vania Mas�as, professional dancer whose Angeles D1 organization helps vulnerable youths in Peru.