“Fiscal and financial transition with new administration will be as smooth as possible”

This administration works so that the next generations and the change of government is as smooth as possible, said the chief economist of the Ministry of Finance, Rodrigo Mariscal.

We are leaving important capitalizations in the Stabilization Funds; we plan to leave the Flexible Credit Line operating so that the new government does not have to negotiate it.

We will leave bonds and catastrophic insurance; We are trying to remove the amortizations scheduled for 2024 and 2025, “so that the transition for 2025 is as smooth as possible and that the next administration receives stable Public Finance and can make the decisions it requires, as smooth as possible. possible”.

He said that they are also developing new alternatives to capitalize the Fund for the Stabilization of Budgetary Income (FEIP).

At a table organized by Este País Magazine, he stressed that a priority of this government has been its commitment to financial stability.

“We are committed to fiscal and debt policy stability and every day we try to get any fiscal imbalance that appears to be caught as quickly as possible and to ensure that this country’s debt remains stable.”

In the session, entitled “Mexican Economy: Present and Future”, he trusted the opportunity that is presenting itself with nearshoring, which is the relocation of US companies to Mexico.

Nearshoring will not be transformational: Werner

The founding Director of the Institute for the Americas of the George Washington University, Alejandro Werner, participated in the same table, observing that “there is exaggeration” with the subject of nearshoring.

It is true that the external environment is giving us an opportunity as a country that we must take advantage of in the best possible way, since it will probably give GDP growth of 25 basis points in the next five years.

“But it is not going to be transformational as a whole, as in the end NAFTA was not transformational with GDP per capita, nor did it give us the convergence that did occur in Southeast Asia.”

Werner, who was a high-level official at the International Monetary Fund between 2013 and 2021, took stock of the Mexican economy in the last four years, and stressed that the government has owed the implementation of a strategy to really reduce inequality.

He recognized the macrofiscal and financial stability that persists in the country and ruled out the risk that the investment grade will be lost towards the end of the six-year term.

Reform Public Finance: Chávez Presa

The former executive director of Mexico for the World Bank, Jorge Chávez Presa, an expert on Public Finance issues, also participated with the two of them.

From his perspective, the great deficiency of this government is the composition of public spending.

He took the case of fuel subsidies to explain that the few taxes collected in the country are being distributed with very low efficiency and that there has been a significant deterioration in public services.

Werner intervened to warn that after the pandemic, most advanced and emerging countries used similar subsidies to try to cushion the impact of rising energy prices.

He stressed that it is a policy that previous administrations used at the time, which was also regressive.

Chávez Presa recognized the effort of the current government to collect more from large taxpayers who evaded their responsibility in the past, but insisted that there is no way to identify the efficiency of spending and distribution of the proceeds.

It would be relevant to have good tools for measuring supply and quality of public services, which serve as an argument for the distribution of resources, he stressed.

The former Treasury official also stressed that in other administrations they sought to subsidize those who needed it most and that instead resources are now being distributed without a method, although with this they also support those who have the most.

ymorales@eleconomista.com.mx