Political and economic analysts in Peru were skeptical that the current government team can reverse the economic recession that the country fell into, which may be worsened by the effects of the El Niño meteorological phenomenon, which is imminently arriving. The darts of the experts have been directed above all against the Minister of Economy, Alex Contreras, who they point out that his strategy of denying the problem, despite the fact that there were three consecutive quarters of decline in the indices, contributed to the crisis deepening. . “A reactivation plan must begin by changing the players. The minister decided to get through the crisis by denying the recession, but it didn't work,” said economic analyst Rafael Hidalgo, one of several who have called for Contreras' departure. “We did not reach an economic recession as a fact that suddenly emerged, but rather it is the product of a series of social, political and institutional actions that we are experiencing in this government,” added former ministerial chief of staff and left-wing leader Mirtha Vásquez. The critical situation, repeatedly denied by Contreras and other government spokespersons, finally became clear a week ago, when the minister explicitly admitted that the country fell into recession. “It is, without a doubt, a recession (…). At no time did we underestimate the situation; It was basically a very academic discussion that we recognized at the time as unnecessary, but the situation is completely difficult,” Contreras said then after requesting – and obtaining – in Congress a supplementary credit for the Executive. It is in this credit for 1,581 million soles (about 416 million soles) that the government of President Dina Boluarte focuses its hopes. The idea is to inject money into circulation, which according to Contreras can mean, in conjunction with other policies, a recovery of up to five percentage points in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). "It is a specific recession, but it can be mitigated with a series of actions that the Executive Branch has been carrying out. We have intensely focused a budget on addressing the fight against crime and addressing the El Niño phenomenon, support for vulnerable populations, sectoral reactivation and regional," the minister insisted.