Photo: CHS

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

It will come as no surprise to most economists that the Mexican economy, which contracted by 0.1 percent in pre-covid 2019, once again registered a dramatic shrinkage in 2020.

Despite constant assurances from leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) throughout the last 12 months that the nation’s economy was “on track” and would bounce back in the second half of the year, Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported Friday, Jan. 29, that the country’s economy had contracted by 8.5 percent in 2020.

In a written report, the Inegi said that Mexico’s Gross Internal Product had suffered its second annual contraction in a row in 2020, due primarily to the covid-19 pandemic.

Mexico had not registered an economic contraction since 2001, when it shank by 0.4 percent, and 2002, when it contracted by 0.03 percent.

Earlier in the month, Mexico’s Finance Secretariat predicted just a 8 percent contraction for 2020.

Other financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had forecasted a 9 percent contraction in the Mexican economy for 2020.

Although Mexico registered an unprecedented 12.1 percent growth rate in the third trimester of last year (mainly spurred by an economic reset after a covid-19 lockdown), the financial recovery slowed again in the last three months of the year.

In the two years since AMLO took office in December 2018, Mexico has registered six consecutive trimesters without growth.

…Feb. 1, 2021