20-12-2018: Latin American Weekly Report

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stuck to his word by tabling a balanced draft budget for 2019. His government’s commitment to fiscal stability allayed the concerns of the markets and was broadly well- received by the private sector. But in order to finance a major increase in social spending, certain areas received a smaller slice of the pie than in the 2018 budget. The political opposition fastened on to this. López Obrador also came under fire for reneging on a campaign commitment to deliver 4% GDP growth in 2019, while some of the figures upon which the budget is based look optimistic, albeit it does not rely on vast sums materialising from the promise to expunge official corruption.