According to Peru's local economic institute, Instituto de Estudios Económicos de la Sociedad Nacional de Industrias (SNI), the global financial crisis is expected to cause investments in the manufacturing industry to drop from US$7.2 billion in 2008 to US$4.6 billion in 2009, or 36.1 percent, due to a decreased confidence shown by firms.
Javier Davila, SNI director, said that firms in the industrial sector decided to stop or cancel their investment programs amid the dim economic forecasts.
Despite a moderate projected economic growth in 2009 of 3.5 percent, Peru's GDP will be severely down from last year's 9.8 percent expansion.
SNI forecasts that the metallurgy sector will experience drop of 34.7 percent in investments compared to figures for 2008, cement firms will see a 30.5 percent decline, and the most affected will be the steel industry, which is expected to see a fall of 47.3 percent.