LIMA – Private investment in Peru between 2009 and 2011 will total an estimated $45 billion, the president of Peru’s central bank, Julio Velarde, said.

In statements made to Canal N television, Velarde added that, of that total, $29 billion has already been confirmed.

The central bank chief said it is unlikely that political risk in Peru will affect investment this year or in 2011 because the country’s maturing middle class is searching for stability.

“This year will be very good for the Peruvian economy since we have a better scenario, and 2011 will be good as well if the projections for a global recovery are maintained,” according to Velarde, who has forecast an inflation rate of around 2 percent in 2010.

He also predicted that the Peruvian economy will grow by 6 percent in June 2010 compared to the same month of 2009, when production levels plunged to their lowest point in recent years.

However, Velarde said the country’s economy faces external risks deriving from a lack of certainty about the economic recovery in the United States and from China’s efforts to cool down its economy due to the risk of high inflation.

Peru is considered by many economists to be one of Latin America’s biggest success stories in recent years.

Under recent pro-business administrations, Peru’s economy grew for 93 consecutive months before contracting by 2.01 percent last April compared to the same month of 2008, due to a drop in foreign demand for both traditional and non-traditional products, the government’s INEI statistics institute reported last June.

Peru’s Economy Ministry, meanwhile, estimated late last month that the nation’s gross domestic product came in anywhere from unchanged to up 1 percent last year, while Prime Minister Javier Velasquez said the government is projecting economic growth of between 5 percent and 6 percent for 2010.