Peru Will Move Its Holidays to Mondays From 2027 — and Changed Its Mind in a Day

By The Rio Times | Created at 2026-08-10 09:11:50 | Updated at 2026-08-10 09:37:10 31 minutes ago

Peru · WORK & LIFE

Key Facts

—The plan: Peru intends to move public holidays that fall between Tuesday and Friday to the nearest Monday, from 2027.

—The reversal: Finance Minister Elmer Cuba first said Fridays on 7 August, then corrected it to Mondays on 8 August.

—What stays put: 28 July, Christmas and New Year are exempt.

—No change in number: The count of public holidays neither rises nor falls; only their placement moves.

—The reasoning: Cuba said Monday avoids cutting the production chain and protects Saturday business activity.

—Also announced: A minimum wage rise possibly starting in October with S/100, roughly US$30, and a second tranche of S/70 later.

Peru is planning to rearrange its public holidays from 2027 so that most of them fall on a Monday, creating long weekends by design. The proposal changed shape within a day: the finance minister announced Fridays on Friday, then said Mondays on Saturday.

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What is being proposed

Finance Minister Elmer Cuba said any public holiday falling between Tuesday and Friday would be moved to the nearest Monday, starting with the 2027 calendar. The number of holidays does not change. Three dates are carved out and stay where they are: 28 July, Christmas and New Year.

“Moving it to the nearest Monday is better,” Cuba said on RPP. “There are business activities that happen on Saturdays. The final idea is that any holiday falling between Tuesday and Friday goes to the Monday, so you do not cut the production chain.”

The proposal changed within twenty-four hours

This is worth spelling out because both versions are circulating. On 7 August Cuba said the holidays would move to Fridays, and that is how it was first reported. On 8 August he corrected it to Mondays, on the grounds that a Friday holiday still interrupts the week for firms that trade on Saturdays.

The substance of the idea survives the reversal, but nothing has been drafted into law yet. If you are reading a headline about Peruvian Friday holidays, it is a day out of date.

Why it matters if you live or work in Peru

Predictability is the point. Under the current calendar a holiday can land on a Wednesday and split the week in half, which is awkward for anyone running a business, coordinating with clients abroad, or arranging childcare. Concentrating them on Mondays turns most of them into three-day weekends.

For remote workers billing clients in other countries, it also makes the Peruvian calendar easier to explain and easier to plan around. For anyone employing staff locally, it changes when you can expect a full week and when you cannot.

The travel and pricing side

Cuba framed the change as pro-tourism, arguing that operators gain predictability and can plan services better. That is plausible, and it has a flip side worth budgeting for: engineered three-day weekends concentrate domestic demand. Expect Cusco, Paracas, Máncora and the Lima-to-coast routes to price accordingly on those Mondays, and expect them to be quieter on the midweek days that used to be holidays.

If you fly regionally, the practical move once the 2027 calendar is published is to book the long weekends early and treat the freed-up midweek days as the cheap window.

What else the finance ministry said this week

In the same run of interviews Cuba said a minimum wage increase could begin in October with a first tranche of S/100, roughly US$30 at today’s rate of about 3.37 soles to the dollar, followed by a second tranche of S/70, about US$21, after the El Niño phenomenon passes. He also said the ministry is preparing a fund to stabilise fuel prices, aiming to bring the price of a gallon of petrol down by up to one sol.

Taken together these are the first concrete cost-of-living signals from the new government, and they point in the same direction: smoothing rather than shock. None of them is law yet either.

What to watch

The 2027 holiday calendar is due to be published during 2026, and that is the document that turns this from a minister’s comment into something you can plan around. Watch for whether the Monday version or the Friday version survives into the draft, and whether the three exempt dates hold.

Until then, the 2026 calendar is unchanged. Nothing about your holidays this year is affected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Peru moving its public holidays to Fridays or Mondays?

Mondays. Finance Minister Elmer Cuba announced Fridays on 7 August and corrected it to Mondays on 8 August, saying a Monday holiday avoids cutting the production chain and protects Saturday trading. Holidays falling between Tuesday and Friday would move to the nearest Monday.

When would the change take effect?

From the 2027 calendar. The 2026 holiday calendar is unchanged. The 2027 calendar is due to be published during 2026, and nothing has been drafted into law yet.

Which holidays would not move?

Three are exempt: 28 July, Christmas and New Year. The total number of public holidays would not change, only the days on which most of them fall.