After World War II, President Odría discontinued import licensing and certain price controls and enacted the Mining Code of 1950, the Petroleum Law of 1952, and the Electrical Industry Law of 1955, all with a view to reassuring sources of foreign and domestic capital of reasonable taxation and an adequate rate of earnings under liberal exploitation concessions. Given this stimulus to capital ventures, the economy expanded, and new exports, such as iron and coal, were developed.
After the coup of 1968, Peru's military rulers sought a profound restructuring of the country's economic life. The overall objectives were the establishment of effective state control of natural resources; redistribution of foreign participation; creation of manageable balance among governmental, private, and foreign sectors; and redistribution of productive sources more broadly throughout the population. Nationalization, coupled with a redistribution of ownership and management authority in major enterprises, was the cornerstone of the new policy from its incipient stages in 1968 though 1975. A five year plan was announced in December 1968, emphasizing a reorientation from an agricultural to an industrial economy and stressing the expropriation of large estates, with redistribution of land to peasants in the sierra. In early 1969, tax and credit incentives for the formation of cooperatives and the consolidation of smaller landholding were enacted. In nonagricultural sectors, the government began, in 1969, selective nationalization of major foreign holding in the mining, petroleum, and infrastructure sectors. In several areas, a government presence was asserted through the creation of state-owned commercial enterprises, the most notable of which included Induperu, in industry; Mineroperu, in mining; Pescaperu, in fishing; Petroperu, in petroleum; Entelperu, in telecommunications; and COFIDE (Corporacion Financiera de Desarrollo), in investment.
Industrial enterprises in general were required to adopt profit-sharing and co-ownership schemes for their employees. Although strict limits were placed on foreign participation in Peruvian industry, such investments were not ruled out in principle, and in 1974, the government acted to guarantee fair settlement for US holdings expropriated during 1968–73.
In the mid-1970s, the regime began to moderate the rigid price control system instituted in its formative years. The prices of petroleum and basic consumer goods were increased, while wage increases were fixed and agricultural subsidies removed. In September 1975, the sol was devalued and financial controls were imposed to help stem inflation (reaching 40% in 1975) and to ease the trade imbalance. The Tupac Amaru Development Plan, announced in 1977, limited the structural reforms of the Inca Plan, calling for economic decentralization and encouragement of foreign investment. In the late 1970s, a number of state-controlled enterprises were sold, and worker participation was curtailed. The civilian leaders who came to power in 1980 sought to reduce government participation in the economy and to improve the efficiency of state enterprises. Import tariffs and export taxes were reduced, and a new investment program for 1980–85 emphasized power and irrigation projects and the construction of housing and health care facilities. These attempts to revitalize the economy were hampered by the worldwide recession and by the soft market of Peru's commodity exports. In response, the García Administration reverted to an interventionist policy, imposing import controls and regulating foreign-exchange availability, as well as influencing the financial sector by threatening to nationalize the banks. On 28 July 1974, the government announced its Inca Plan (which may actually have been drawn up before the 1969 coup), a master plan that envisioned eventual transformation of all economic entities along prescribed socialist lines. Three types of enterprises were to be permitted to operate in Peru: state-owned enterprises, worker-owned collectives (industrial communities), and social-property companies (entities managed by workers but financed by the state). In late 1975, the Central Bank set up a line of credit to aid the formation of social-property companies through the National Fund for Social Property. The Agrarian Bank, which had been created in July, was authorized to handle the credit requirements of the reorganized agricultural sector, as well as to ease the transformation of cooperatives and farmers' associations, many of which had existed for only a few years, into social-property entities. The order of priorities for industry placed basic industries—notably steel, nonferrous metals, chemicals, fertilizers, cement, and paper—at high rung, followed by manufacturers of capital good, such as machine tools, and industrial research. Reinvestment of profits was stressed throughout.
The decade of the 1990s, with an administration in favor of a market economy, attracted more investment into Peru's economy. With foreign capital flowing, Peru was poised for economic recovery. Privatization and the rapidly growing economy were providing the government with funds to spend on infrastructure and social programs.
In August of 1990, the government implemented an economic program based on (1) an economic stabilization plan, (2) a structural reform program and (3) a set of initiatives aimed at reintegrating the Peruvian economy into the international economic system. As a direct result economic growth in the 1990s was quite strong.
The economic stabilization plan focused on achieving an inflation rate comparable to international levels, and to foster an environment favorable for savings, investment and sustained economic growth. The plan was based on strict fiscal discipline in accordance with an austere monetary policy. The inflation rate was about 6% in 1999. Structural reforms resulted in capital amounting to $7 billion between 1991 and 1999, resulting in a massive inflow of foreign investment. The reinsertion of Peru into the international financial system, beginning in 1991, was intended to restore normal relations between the country and its international creditors. Peru normalized its relations with multilateral bodies, the Paris Club, and with commercial banks.
Upon being elected in 2001, President Toledo implemented an economic recovery program, to revive an economy that had stagnated from 1998–2001. He took measures to revive the privatization program and to attract investment. The production, refining, and distribution of coca engages approximately 200,000 Peruvians, but the government has taken steps to curtail the narcotics industry. These include promoting alternative development programs in coca-growing areas, in order to convince coca farmers not to grow the crop.
In 2002, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a two-year $347 million Stand-By Arrangement with Peru, to support the government's plans for economic recovery and a lowered rate of inflation.