Peru will want to pay much less than the $2.1 billion that it owes on its external debt payments for next year, the new finance minister, Javier Silva Ruete, was reported saying in a number of newspapers Monday. "To be in condition to pay the debt, we will have to make an economic adjustment that will be intolerable for the people who are already suffering enough," Silva Ruete was quoted as saying in Gestion.

The newspaper said he mentioned payments ranging from $1.0 billion to $1.2 billion