08 June 2011

PERU: Humala's Cabinet Selections...Could Calm Markets.

BLOOMBERG / H. Murphy, J. Quigley

Peru's stock market has rebounded by 7%...after a crippling 12% crash and trade halt...when the results of the presidential election were finalized...and confirmed that longtime leftist Ollanta Humala had indeed narrowly defeated investor-friendly Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori.

Now Humala has to prove his conversion to less radical economic policies...perhaps by emulating Brasil's former President Lula da Silva's first years in office.

The markets will be closely watching his cabinet appointments.
“Humala has to come out and send a signal or this selloff won’t end,” said observer Mauricio Cardenas. “The market is asking for a response. It wants to hear who the finance minister will be.”
 But...says another expert...Compared with Lula and his people, Humala is a political amateur. The best thing to do would be to calm down the markets and name a finance minister today.”