Peru’s president vows to ramp up campaign to end poverty

Published on 30/07/2012 00:00

peruvian president Ollanta Humala has vowed to ramp up spending for the poor as he tries to spread the benefits of an economic boom to all Peruvians and defuse conflicts over mining that have marred his term.

Mr Humala, in an annual address to congress this weekend just days after anti-mining protests prompted him to shuffle his cabinet for the second time since taking power a year ago, said he would extend the rollout of social programmes in a bid to cut the nation’s poverty rate to 15 per cent by the end of his term in 2016.

The poverty rate has been cut in half to 27 per cent in the past decade, but still tops 60 per cent in remote provinces.

Many towns have not seen the fruits of the country’s long expansion, which was initially led by metals exports from one of the world’s biggest mineral producers but is now being led by public investment and 
sizzling domestic demand.

“We haven’t attained all we proposed. All beginnings are tough,” the president said.