Mexico’s AMLO Says May Weigh Joint Venture if Banamex Bid Fails

Bloomberg, 05/23/2023

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the government would consider participating in Citigroup Inc’s sale of its retail banking unit Banamex if a bid by billionaire German Larrea’s Grupo Mexico SAB fell through.

AMLO, as the president is known, spoke in response to speculation by local press that a bid by Larrea could be affected by a government seizure of a rail line owned by Grupo Mexico. At the presser, AMLO dismissed as false a tweet shared by a local business columnist on Monday that said Larrea was pulling out his bid for the bank. 

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The next show you watch could be filmed in Mexico City

NPR, 05/21/2023

It’s an increasingly familiar sight on the streets of Mexico City, as American and European companies send TV and film shoots south of the border, taking advantage of lower costs and experienced Mexican crews.

The Lift, the Mexican production services company running this shoot, has made commercials for brands like Apple, Dr. Pepper, Doritos and Turbotax. Six of there 35 commercials aired during the 2023 Super Bowl were produced in Mexico.

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Mexico’s Safest State Is Seeing a Real Estate Boom

Bloomberg, 05/10/2023

Mexico’s lowest-crime region is strengthening its reputation as an oasis of calm in a country roiled by drug killings. Yucatán, the southeastern state known for its Mayan ruins, has a homicide rate more than 90% lower than the national average. 

Governor Mauricio Vila says this is the fruit of relying on local police rather than just federal armed forces — paying them well, and giving them the technology they need, such as security cameras and machines to read license plates.

“The most important thing in any organization is its human capital,” said Vila, 43, in an interview in the state capital Mérida, making the case that Yucatán’s success was not merely the result of its history or geography.

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Mexico rolls out investment plans for southern industrial corridor

Reuters, 05/08/2023

The Mexican government on Monday set out fresh details of a plan to attract businesses to a corridor straddling a narrow isthmus of southern Mexico, part of a larger push to pump investment into the relatively poor region.

The plan, called the Inter-Oceanic Corridor, will include 10 new industrial parks along the stretch connecting the Pacific port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state with the Gulf coast hub of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state, officials said.

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Mexico Inflation Slows Again, Signaling End to Interest Rate Hikes Is Near

Bloomberg, 05/09/2023

Mexico’s annual inflation slowed for the third straight month in April, boosting chances that the central bank ends its record tightening cycle at next week’s policy meeting.

Consumer prices rose 6.25% from a year earlier, down from 6.85% recorded in March, the national statistics institute reported Tuesday. The data point was just above the 6.22% median estimate by economists in a Bloomberg survey.

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Tech companies look to Mexico for new talent

Marketplace, 05/02/2023

Google, Microsoft, Twitter and dozens more companies that aren’t household names have all laid off workers en masse, as the pandemic hiring spree ran into rising interest rates and changing consumer behavior.

But just south of the border, in Tijuana, Mexico, the information technology industry is still heating up.

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PIB de México creció 3.9% anual en primer trimestre, reporta Inegi

La Jornada, 28/04/2023

La economía mexicana creció 3.9 por ciento anual durante el primer trimestre de 2023, según la estimación oportuna publicada por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (Inegi) en cifras originales. Con ello, el producto interno bruto (PIB) acumula ocho trimestres al alza, luego de dos años de caídas, que en el país iniciaron antes de la pandemia de coronavirus.

Por componentes, la actividad industrial avanzó 2.7 por ciento respecto al primer trimestre de 2022, los servicios y el comercio lo hicieron en 4.4 por ciento y el sector primario —compuesto por agricultura, cría y explotación de animales, aprovechamiento forestal, pesca y caza— creció 2.4 por ciento.

La Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público calcula que el crecimiento del producto interno bruto (PIB) al cierre de este año sea de entre 1.6 y 3 por ciento, luego de 3.1 por ciento registrado en 2022; la mayoría de organismos internacionales marcan su previsión más cercana al extremo inferior de este rango, como 1.8 por ciento publicado por Fondo Monetario Internacional en abril.

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EMERGING MARKETS-Mexico’s peso falls on growth worries, stronger dollar

Yahoo Finance, 04/25/2023

The peso eased 0.4% against the greenback by 1450 GMT after data showed Mexico’s economy grew 0.1% in February from January and expanded 3.8% from February of 2022, missing analyst estimates. “Their manufacturing is now under stress because of the U.S.’s weakening industrial sector. We also believe that the tight financial conditions and relatively high inflation will put a lid on the services economy,” said Andres Abadia, chief Latam economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “Overall, the growth momentum will start to ease over the next few months but it won’t collapse, it is just a normal slowdown.”

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Querétaro, Mérida and Mexico City have fastest-growing cargo airports

Mexico News Daily, 04/19/2023

The international airports in Querétaro, Mérida, and Mexico City topped the charts as Mexico’s fastest-growing cargo terminals in the first two months of 2023. 

Handling 12,300 tons of cargo and registering 15.9% growth compared to the same period in 2022, Querétaro International Airport had the fastest cargo handling growth in the country.

In second place was Mérida International Airport, which registered a volume of 4,100 tons and an annual growth of 10.8%. 

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Mexico’s auto production and exports rebound

Mexico Now, 04/11/23

MEXICO – At the close of the first quarter of 2023, vehicle production and exports in Mexico rebounded by more than 8% annually, but both items have yet to reach pre-pandemic and peak levels.

Auto production in Mexico was of 922,177 units in the first three months of 2023. This figure still below the 933,567 vehicles assembled in the same period of 2020, but the highest for a single quarter since then.

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