Close to reaching the first ninety days of the new government, Universidad del Pacífico School of Economics and Finance brought together leading economists, graduates of our university and former Fulbright grantees, in order to analyze and discuss the economic measures implemented during Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's first weeks of government.
Carlos Paredes, director of Intelfin and Professor at Universidad del Pacífico Graduate School, developed a macro analysis of the economic measures adopted by the new government, highlighting that the development of domestic markets must be prioritized, especially the labor market, where restrictions are very rigid and prevent rapid formalization.
"I don't know if reducing IGV is the instrument for increasing formalization. "It is necessary to address labor rigidity and large cost overruns. However, we haven't heard much on this subject," explained Paredes.
For Paredes, the government intends to become more involved in unlocking investment and generating attractive incentives in the bureaucratic apparatus that would speed up reforms and projects, but this is still to be seen in the coming months.
Janice Seinfeld took part in the discussion group
Alberto Pascó - Font, director of ENFOCA
On the other hand, Alberto Pascó-Font, director of ENFOCA, stressed the need to strengthen the capacities of regional management and at the same time enhance project monitoring agencies. This would be done so that there is infrastructure expenditure on works that really benefit the population thanks to an efficient regulation filter that maximizes the return on investment, as the SNIP, which is very weak now, used to do.
"We need a space for reflection to see what is done with public investment. That was the initial objective of the SNIP, but it has been undermined", said Pascó-Font.
Finally, Janice Seinfeld emphasized the need for the health system not to receive fragmented funding. "The health sector resources come from various sectors of the system despite the existence of an Integrated Health System (SIS), which is currently only used to transfer funds," said the Executive Director of Videnza Consultants and professor in the Academic Department of Economics at Universidad del Pacífico.
Carlos Paredes, Professor at Universidad del Pacífico Graduate School.
She also stressed that this entity does not have the capacity to plan and allocate resources according to the real needs of citizens. She pointed out, as well, that along with this efficiency reform there should be a budget increase, as the health sector has already spent its resources for this year and has a considerable debt for the next.
The "Evaluation of the economic measures taken by the new government" discussion group had BCRP Director and Director of Universidad del Pacífico Research Center (CIUP), Gustavo Yamada as moderator.