AMLO denies that Mexico suffers an economic recession

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The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador ruled out that the statement made by the Bank of Mexico and Bank of America is true

The president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), ruled out Friday that his country is entering a recession, as warned by the Bank of Mexico and Bank of America, and attributed these signs to the “nostalgia” for the neoliberal policies.

“I do not see a threat of recession,” the Mexican president said bluntly at his daily conference, which this time was held in the city of Tepic, capital of the western state of Nayarit.

“As the lawyers say: accepting without conceding that there is a decrease in the rate of growth, and I have no doubt that there may be such a decrease, but the level of development is increasing because now there is a better distribution of income,” he explained.

On Thursday, the Bank of Mexico warned in a document of a slowdown greater than anticipated and, due to the economic contraction in the first quarter and the signs of weakness in the second, suggested the possibility of a “slight recession”.

In turn, Bank of America Merrill Lynch warned in a report for investors that, if economic growth slows in the second quarter, the country would enter “technical recession.”

López Obrador pointed out that in Mexico “there is a kind of nostalgia for the previous neoliberal economic policy” and that there is a kind of “club of defenders of that policy, which was a failure”.

“They still do not resign themselves to the fact that we are going to continue with that economic policy and they are insisting on all sides,” he said.

He stressed that on Thursday the main issue in Mexican newspapers was the threat of recession “and they give volume to the issue because they are not in agreement with the new economic policy.”

He recalled that that note appeared in an English newspaper and in Mexico “it reproduced too much, the newspapers, all, seem bulletins”.

He pointed out that his critics do not emphasize that the Mexican peso is the currency that has strengthened the most in recent months in relation to the dollar, nor that there is less inflation than before, two important economic variables.

He pointed out that during the neoliberal period in Mexico “there was no growth, nor was their distribution of wealth and how little the economy grew in a few hands” and that its critics “rub their hands when they talk about a recession”.

He also called them “panders” of the economic policy of previous administrations because they never denounced the “looting” that was in the country.

And he recalled that recession was what happened when the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) and at the beginning of the government of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2002), “when the economy fell 7%”.

He said that for this year a growth of 2% was projected and the technicians and experts say that it will not be reached, that its forecast is that it will be 1%.

“And if that were the case, in any case, we are talking about growth, not degrowth,” concluded López Obrador.

The president has promised that the country will grow at 4% on average annually during his six-year term, which is to culminate in 2024. 

Source: el debate

The Mazatlan Post