Peru economy contracts 0.28% in March year-on-year -govt

Peru's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 0.28% in March from a year earlier, the government's INEI statistics agency said on Wednesday, reversing two straight months of growth as the Andean economy hopes to end to last year's recession.

The figure was well below the 0.95% growth forecast predicted by analysts polled by Reuters, though the full quarter is Peru's first in positive territory after four in the red last year.