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AFP
Lima
Former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was inaugurated as Peru's new president on Thursday, vowing to kick-start the economy and unite a country torn by a photo-finish election.
The 77-year-old centre-right economist extended an olive branch to defeated rival Keiko Fujimori's party, which controls Congress, saying he would need their help to pass reforms.
And he promised to work for all Peruvians, outlining his vision for a 'social revolution' in his inaugural address before Congress."I will seek equity, equality and fraternity among all Peruvians," he said, vowing 'not just economic, but human growth.'
The normally staid Kuczynski, who is known as a technocrat with a polished resume, choked up as he took the oath of office, then donned his new red-and-white presidential sash over his pin striped suit.
Peru is one of Latin America's fastest-growing economies, but growth slowed under outgoing leftist president Ollanta Humala, from 6.5 percent in 2011 to 3.3 percent last year.
Kuczynski vows to stimulate the economy, revive the key mining sector, fight the poverty that affects 22 percent of Peruvians, and strengthen the police and prisons to reduce crime.
Known simply as PPK, Kuczynski wants to extend basic services such as schools, hospitals and drinking water to the one-third of Peruvians who lack them. But his party, the centre-right Peruvians for Change, has just 18 seats in the 130-member Congress.
The new legislature is dominated by allies of Fujimori, the daughter of disgraced and jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori.
Her right-wing party, Popular Force, has 73 seats. That could make it hard for Kuczynski to advance his reform agenda.
There may be lingering bad blood from the election - Fujimori took five days to concede as results trickled in from the remote reaches of the Peruvian Amazon. In the end she had little choice but to recognise defeat, by less than a quarter of a percentage point.
The race opened old wounds dating back to the 1990s, when Fujimori's father was president.
Now serving a 25-year prison sentence for massacres by an army death squad, Alberto Fujimori is fondly remembered by some Peruvians for his populist streak, his ruthless crack-down on the leftist rebel group Shining Path and his management of a strong economy.
