Peru’s new Prime Minister Guido Bellido says the state is planning to participate in key industries, including natural gas and new hydroelectric projects, under a new leftist administration.
Bellido, the top aide to newly inaugurated President Pedro Castillo, said the government will also seek to create new public companies, a shift for the Andean nation which in recent decades has focused on divesting its state-controlled corporations.
Castillo, a former elementary school teacher, and Bellido are now poised to tilt Peru sharply to the left if they can surmount the significant hurdle of getting greenlit by the opposition-led Congress.
They have also set up a committee to keep inflation in check, and shore up the waning strength of the local sol currency, which is at a historic low against the dollar largely due to higher political risk, analysts say.
Peru’s more moderate Economy Minister Pedro Francke will be in charge of the committee, he said, adding that they need to stop the dollar’s rise against the local Sol currency.
Bellido, who is also a congressman for his native Cuzco region, was little-known in Lima political circles before Castillo, won the presidency this June, campaigning with the Marxist-Leninist party Free Peru.
In a wide-ranging interview from Lima’s ornamental government palace, Bellido said he has little concern for potential challenges from Congress, and said Castillo will not be impeached, unlike his predecessor Martin Vizcarra.
Castillo is Peru’s fifth president in five years due to continued political turmoil. He has yet to give any interviews since taking office.
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