Chile, Colombia and the US already exceed their pre-COVID GDP per capita… Mexico is far away

How much did Mexico’s GDP per capita fall due to COVID?

The GDP per inhabitant in Mexico fell 18.06% in the second quarter of 2020, when the effects caused by the confinement of the COVID-19 pandemic were already noticeable.

The fall was also similar in other Latin American countries such as Colombia, where GDP per capita fell 16.9%, or Chile, where it fell 13.24%.

However, after practically two years, these countries have already recovered and even exceeded the level of GDP per capita they had until before the arrival of COVID, with the exception of Mexico.

In the first quarter of 2022, the index that measures Chile’s per capita product, for example, was 7.45 percentage points higher than it was in the first quarter of 2020. Colombia’s grew by 9.34 points, according to the index of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Even the United States recovered from the slump and now has a GDP per capita that is 4.12% higher than in the first quarter of 2020.

Mexico, the only one without recovering and lagging behind since 2018

The product per inhabitant in Mexico; however, it is in figures similar to those of 2014, according to data from the OECD. And, in fact, since Andrés Manuel López Obrador began his management as president of the country, this indicator has fallen 6.63 points.

While Mexico’s per capita income index was 111.1 points in the last quarter of 2018, when AMLO took power, in the first quarter of 2022, the indicator fell to 104.47 points.

The pandemic was not the only factor against the economic objectives of the six-year term, since even before the outbreak of COVID, Mexico’s per capita income had already fallen gradually. In fact, in the first quarter of 2020, before the pandemic, Mexico’s GDP per capita index fell 3.42 points since López Obrador became president.

For 2023 things do not look good. Bank of America forecasts 0% growth for the country for next year. This means that, while the population grows, GDP per capita will continue to decline towards the end of López Obrador’s six-year term.

How much is Mexico’s GDP per capita in dollars?

In 2021, the Mexican economy produced 18,545 dollars for each inhabitant, at 2011 prices adjusted for purchasing power parity; that is, so that the purchasing power is comparable with all countries.

And, according to World Bank data, this level is below the 19,928 dollars per inhabitant that Mexico reached in 2018, the maximum in recent years. A reduction of 7.4% between both years.