was it all García's fault? hyperinflation usually doesn't result from goverment or central bank mistakes as much as from civil wars, civil unrest, and the like, which make it hard for a government to collect taxes or to cut expenditures -- so that they are _forced_ to "run the printing presses," causing hyperinflation. Garcia was trying to deal with Sendero Luminoso and other social conflicts, no? isn't that what caused the hyperinflation?
I can imagine that he made a lot of mistakes, but that's common when it's hard to keep political alliances together.
Here's what the Wikipedia has to say:
>The youthful and charismatic García was elected president on April
14, 1985 with 45% of the vote during the first round. ... García was
thus declared president on June 1st and officially took power on July
28, 1985. It was the first time in its sixty-year history that the
populist APRA party had come to power in Peru. Aged only 36, García
was dubbed "Latin America's Kennedy," becoming the region's youngest
president at the time.
>Despite his initial popularity among Peruvian voters, García's term
in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649%
in 1990 and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% between July 1985 and
July 1990, thereby profoundly destabilizing the Peruvian economy.
>... During his administration, the per capita annual income of
Peruvians fell to $720 (below the level of 1960) and Peru's Gross
Domestic Product dropped 20%. By the end of his term, national
reserves were a negative $900 million.
>According to studies of the INEI and PNUD[1], around the start of his
presidency, 41.6% of Peruvians lived in poverty. During his
presidency, more than five million Peruvians were added to the ranks
of the poor. The percentage increased 23% (to 55%) in 1991.
>García also made an attempt to nationalize the banking and insurance
industries. He incurred the wrath of the IMF and the financial
community by unilaterally declaring a ceiling on debt repayment equal
to 10% of GNP, thereby isolating Peru from the international financial
world until García's successor, Alberto Fujimori, resolved the matter
in the early 1990s.
>The economic turbulence of the time excerbated social tensions in
Peru and partly contributed to the rise of the violent rebel movement
Shining Path, which had begun attacking electric towers, causing a
number of blackouts in Lima. The García administration unsuccessfully
sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, committing human
rights violations which are still under investigation. These include
the Accomarca massacre, where 47 campesinos were gunned to death by
the Peruvian armed forces in August 1985, the Cayara massacre (May
1988) in which some thirty were killed and dozens disappeared, and the
summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in
Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista (El Frontón) and Santa Bárbara in 1986.
According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600 forced
disappearances took place during García's presidency.
>Garcia left the country with hyperinflation, isolated from the
international financial community, left the country with reserves of
minus US$900 Million, continuous bombing and violent attacks by a
rising Shining Path terrorist group, great increase in poverty levels
and an electric train multi-million investment that was never
finished.
>García remains a popular public figure in Peru, largely due to his
oratorial skills. Some Peruvians have called him "Latin America's best
orator with a power to convince." However, his critics claim the many
poor decisions he took while in office created an environment
conducive the rise of an authoritarian leader like Fujimori. Some
suspect García and APRA cut a deal with Fujimori during the 1990
election, backing him in return for impunity,....<
-- Jim Devine / "Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." -- Orson Scott Card