Mexico has second worst economy in Latin America during Obrador’s six-year term

BOGOTA (APRO) – The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) today ranked Mexico as having the second-lowest economic growth in the region during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s six-year term (2019-2024), with an average annual expansion of just 0.98%, the lowest since the Miguel de la Madrid government (1983-1988).

According to the ECLAC 2024 economic study, released on Tuesday in Santiago, Chile, Mexico has grown by a cumulative 5.9% (0.98% per year) over the past six years (2019 to this year), ranking second to last and one of the worst performing economies in Latin America.

Data from a United Nations agency report showed that Argentina had the worst economy in the region during the same period, with a cumulative decline of -1.4% and an average annual decline of -0.23%.

Mexico’s weak economic growth during López Obrador’s six-year term has led to stagnant per capita income, which will be around $8,800 this year in constant 2018 prices, which would represent a slight increase compared to the previous year. Enrique Peña government.

According to ECLAC data, the best performing Latin American economy over the past six years was the Dominican Republic, with an average annual growth of 3.86%, followed by Panama (3.70%), Guatemala (3.55%), Costa Rica (3.28%) and Honduras (2.95%).

The weakest economies in the region between 2019 and 2024 are Argentina, with an average annual decline of -0.23%, Mexico (0.98%), Uruguay (1.30%), Bolivia (1.33%) and Peru (1.55%).

For example, Mexico was one of the few Latin American countries that took two years to recover from the recession caused by the 2020 covid-19 pandemic, while most countries did so within a year, according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

On average, Latin America’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by -6.9% in 2020, but grew by 7.1% the following year.

Mexico, on the other hand, saw its GDP fall by 8.4% that year and only grow by 6% in 2021.

Emmanuel Salas, a doctor of economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, believes that Mexico’s economic crisis caused by the epidemic in 2020 might have been alleviated, as happened in most Latin American countries, if the López Obrador government had implemented countercyclical policies involving the injection of funds into the economy.