Virus lockdown cuts movement by 89% in Peru

Data from Google show that Peru has done a better job than its neighbors in enforcing controls to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trips to cafes, supermarkets and parks all plunged as the nation implements some of Latin America’s toughest lockdown rules. Visits and length of stay in categories including retail, recreation and workplaces fell by an average of almost 90 percent in the Andean nation on April 5, according to Google’s Covid-19 mobility report.

This contrasts to Mexico and Brazil where the gauge has fallen by less than half as Presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Jair Bolsonaro both took a more relaxed attitude toward stay-at-home policies.

Google says it produces the reports with aggregated, anonymised data from users who have turned on the “location history” setting on their phones.

Social mobility has also fallen by more than 60 percent in Colombia, Nigeria, Argentina, Malaysia, Philippines, India, South Africa and Turkey. The measures will carry a high cost, according to a report by Citigroup Inc.

“Economies under tighter social disétancing may experience more negative shock in domestic sector than others,” Citi economists wrote in a report summarising Google’s findings.

The International Monetary Fund now forecasts that global gross domestic product will shrink 3 percent this year, with the Latin America and Caribbean region contracting by more than five percent.