Infrastructure spending on track for lowest level in 2025

“When you reduce spending in this way, especially in physical investment, you have sectors of the economy that are depressed, like construction on this occasion. Imagine how many workers they used for the Mayan Train or the Felipe Ángeles International Airport; By not having similar works to replace those that are being completed, then there will be many unemployed construction workers. Just as there was a boom in construction, right now they are going through a complicated season, because there is no work to replace those that are already being completed,” commented Manuel Herrera, vice president of the National Committee of Economic Studies of the Mexican Institute of Finance Executives (IMEF).

He said that this is not the first time that the government has applied this type of adjustments, since in 2015, when oil prices fell, expenses were cut to stabilize public finances. “It is a common practice, and there are sectors that suffer the consequences of it, for example, construction and energy,” added Herrera.

Treasury figures suggest that spending on physical investment will be less than the money that will be paid for the financial cost of the debt, which will amount to 1.4 trillion pesos in 2025, or than the debt ceiling itself, proposed at 1.5 trillion.

The president of the IMEF, Domingo Figueroa, explained that we must invest in infrastructure to be competitive and bring private investment, especially to take advantage of the return of investments that went to Asia, and that are back to be closer to the still economy. strongest in the world: United States.

“One of the big problems in materializing nearshoring is precisely the delays in energy generation, especially clean energy, roads, gas pipelines, ports, infrastructure challenges are very important to be able to compete internationally. It would also be a very important blow in attracting new investments due to the lack of infrastructure in our country,” said Figueroa.

Herrera added that private sector investment can offset the lack of public investment through concessions.