By Carolina Pulice April 8 (Reuters) - Peru's economy is still being weighed down by protests hitting copper mines including MMG's 1208.HK Las Bambas and Southern Copper Corp's SCCO.N Cuajone, a central bank official said on Friday. "(Production) problems remain, affecting the evolution of mining GDP," said Adrian Armas, the bank's manager of economic studies. Armas said the bank expected inflation to start falling from July, reaching its target range of 1%-3% in the second or third quarter of next year.