The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Peru’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow 6.2 percent this year, which means Peru would be the fourth largest economy to record the biggest expansion in the Americas.

According to the Economic Outlook report, the Peruvian economy is preceded by Argentina, with an increase of 8%, Chile with 6.5% and Paraguay with 6.4%. It is followed by Uruguay with 6%, with Ecuador with 5.8%, Bolivia with 5%, Colombia with 4.9%, Brazil and Mexico with 3.8% each, and Venezuela with 2.8%.

The IMF report projected Peru’s economy would grow by 5.6% in 2012, the largest level in the Americas.

In 2012 Paraguay's economy is expected to grow by 5%, followed by Chile (4.7%), Argentina (4.6%), Colombia and Bolivia (4.5%) and Uruguay (4.2%).

According to an article in Gestion, the IMF said countries in Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a rapid expansion in the first half of 2011, driven by strong activity in many commodity-exporting countries in the region.

However, the pace of expansion has started to stabilize now that many economies have fully recovered from the global crisis and are adopting more restrictive macroeconomic policies.

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