The economy of Peru is classified as upper middle income by the World Bank and is the 42nd largest in the world. Peru is, as of 2011, one of the world's fastest-growing economies owing to the economic boom experienced during the 2000s. The core of the current sound economic performance of the country is a combination of:

All of these factors have enabled Peru to make great strides in development, with improvement in government finances, poverty reduction and progress in social sectors.

Peru is an emerging, market-oriented economy characterized by a high level of foreign trade. The inequality of opportunities has declined: between 1995 and 2006 Peru's rating on The World Bank's Human Opportunity Index improved substantially as increased public investment in water, sanitation and electric power has sustained the downward trend in inequality of opportunities. Its economy is diversified although the commodity exports is important, the trade and industry are centralized in Lima but the agricultural exports have created development in all the regions. In 2010 Peru's per capita income (PPP) is bordering $10,000. Peru has a high Human Development Index score of 0.723. Poverty has steadily decreased in 18% since 2004, when nearly half the country's population was under the poverty line. 2010 data shows that around 27% of its total population is poor.

Peru ⁱ/pəˈruː/ (Spanish: Perú; Quechua: Perú;Aymara: Piruw), officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish: República del Perú, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðel peˈɾu] ( listen)), is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.

Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures, spanning from the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty, which included most of its South American colonies. After achieving independence in 1821, Peru has undergone periods of political unrest and fiscal crisis as well as periods of stability and economic upswing.

Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. Its geography varies from the arid plains of the Pacific coast to the peaks of the Andes Mountains and the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin. It is a developing country with a high Human Development Index score and a poverty level around 31%. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing of products such as textiles.

Luis Miguel Castilla Rubio is a Peruvian economist and politician. He is the incumbent Minister of Economy and Finance of Peru, serving under President Ollanta Humala.

Educated in North America, and bilingual in Spanish and English, Miguel Castilla holds a B.A. with Honors in Economics and Business Administration from the McGill University in Montreal, Canada, a Master and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and has taken a course in the Global Crisis and Financial Reform Program of the Harvard University. He has held the positions of consultant to the World Bank vice president for North Africa and the Middle East, adviser to the executive chair of the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), and director of the Bank of the Nation of Peru. He has been a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of the Pacific in Lima.

In the administration of President Alan García, Castilla has served as deputy minister of Finance under minister Mercedes Aráoz from January 2010 to July 2011. On 28 July 2011, newly-elected President Ollanta Humala appointed him as Minister of Economy and Finance. The choice of Castilla – who is characterised as an orthodox pro-market economist – was estimated as a sign for Humala's intention to pursue a reasonable and moderate economic policy and to remove the fears of a radical shift to the left.

Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique (born 28 March 1946) is a politician who was President of Peru, from 2001 to 2006. He was elected in April 2001, defeating former President Alan García. Toledo came to international prominence after leading the opposition against President Alberto Fujimori, who held the presidency from 1990 to 2000.

Born into a family of indigenous campesinos (peasants) of Quechua heritage and living in extreme poverty, he was one of sixteen brothers and sisters. He was born in the village of Ferrer, Bolognesi, but registered in the nearby town of Cabana, Pallasca Province, Ancash Department. He grew up in Chimbote, a city on Peru's northern coast, where from the age of six, he worked shining shoes and selling newspapers and lottery tickets.

After a childhood filled with multiple jobs and living in impovershed conditions, Toledo eventually found employment as a news correspondent for La Prensa in Chimbote, where he interviewed several high-ranking politicians. At age 20, with guidance from members of the Peace Corps, Toledo enrolled at the University of San Francisco on a one-year scholarship. He completed the BA program in economics and business administration at USF by obtaining a partial soccer scholarship and working part-time pumping gas. He later attended Stanford University, earning a master's in Economics and the Economics of Human Resources, he then earned a PhD in the Economics of Human Resources in 1993 at the Stanford University School of Education.

Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri (April 19, 1970) is a Mexican singer. He is widely known only by the name Luis Miguel. An icon in the Spanish-speaking countries, he is often referred to as "El Sol de México" (The Sun of Mexico) or simply "El Sol" (The Sun).

Beginning his musical career in his childhood, Luis Miguel has won five Grammys and four Latin Grammys among other numerous awards. He is considered as one of the top male pop vocalists in the world nowadays. His contribution to Latin pop music, along with his hermetic personal life, has made him a global figure of Latin music for almost three decades. He debuted on the professional music at 11 years old. At the age of fifteen, Luis Miguel received his first Grammy for his duet "Me Gustas Tal Como Eres" (I Like You Just The Way You Are) with Sheena Easton. In 1991, the RIAA gave him a recognition for the high sales of the albums Romance and Segundo Romance. Luis Miguel is the only Latin artist to have two Spanish-language albums (Romance and Segundo Romance) go platinum in the USA. He has achieved a long string of distinctions. Also among those was having his album Luis Miguel achieve gold and platinum certifications in four countries, including the United States, within just three days of its release.