Peru's top 1% captured 42% of new wealth, report says

Peru's richest have grabbed a massive slice of the pie. An analysis by Oxfam reveals that the top 1 percent captured 42 percent of all new wealth generated between 2019 and 2025. That is a sharp rise from the period spanning 2000 to 2019, when the same elite group took about 39 percent. Meanwhile, the poorest half of the population received just 1.4 percent of new wealth during those years.

The report dropped on Tuesday and throws a cold light on deepening social divisions in the South American nation. Alejandra Alayza, executive director of Oxfam in Peru, told the story bluntly. "Economic inequality in Peru has remained stubbornly high for decades," she said. "And when people feel that the same people always win, that nothing changes and nothing can change, inequality starts to look less like an injustice and more like the natural order of things."

She called this mindset a dangerous kind of fatalism. We must tear it down. The nonprofit told Al Jazeera via email that these numbers show how far the gap has widened in just six years. Experts warn this trend hurts public faith in government and democratic institutions right now.

Public anger is high. Oxfam teamed up with the Institute for Peruvian Studies, a think tank in Lima, to publish a report on what Peruvians feel about inequality. The findings were stark. 84 percent of respondents believe their country is run by powerful interests that twist politics for their own benefit. More than 75 percent said wealthy corporations and individuals dodge paying their fair share of taxes.

About 70 percent want the government to act more aggressively to reduce inequality. A majority feels access to essential services like healthcare, employment, education, and justice has been limited by this imbalance. "The undeniable scale of public support for action to reduce inequality leaves no room for complacency," Alayza said. She added that inequality is not a force of nature but the result of political choices. Different choices can build a different Peru.

Political instability runs deep in this picture. Rising inequality has marched hand-in-hand with turmoil, especially inside the presidential palace. A stream of probes, scandals, and impeachments means Peru has had nine presidents in the last decade. The current leader, right-wing President Keiko Fujimori, took office in July following a narrow victory that saw voting delays and heated recriminations between top candidates.

Will Freeman, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out the strange nature of this power structure. "It's sort of a paradox," he told Al Jazeera. "How can you have such a rotation among elites but still have a relatively narrow political-criminal-business elite that holds a lot of power? I think both things are true in Peru."

Much of this upheaval stems from clashes between the presidency and Peru's powerful Congress, which can impeach leaders based on an ambiguous term called "moral incapacity". Repeated shakeups have weakened democracy, analysts say. In December 2022, then-President Pedro Castillo announced he would illegally dissolve Congress after repeated attempts to remove him. His subsequent removal and arrest sparked widespread protests across the country.

The administration following Castillo's term, led by Dina Boluarte, launched a prolonged crackdown on the protests. Rights organizations claim these actions involved widespread abuses that have yet to see proper accountability. Since then, the Peruvian state has actively worked to weaken judicial oversight and strip anticorruption watchdogs of their power.

Freedom House rated Peru as "free" in 2022. That status vanished the next year when deadly clashes erupted between security forces and demonstrators. The nonprofit's 2026 report kept the designation at "partly free." It noted that certain groups, including Indigenous peoples, are denied full political rights. High-profile corruption scandals have eroded public trust in government, and the weakening of judicial independence has impacted the country's governing bodies.

Powerful interests, both licit and illicit, have taken advantage of those changes. Freeman described these groups as unstable and fluid. Yet, she believes Peruvians are right to conclude that they generally wield outsized influence to defend commercial interests or political power rather than serving some kind of general welfare.