10262015Mon
Last updateMon, 26 Oct 2015 3pm

Negotiations of 2016 budget – deadline November 15 – shows that Mexico’s (Fiscal) Moment seems pretty much over

A time of demanding fiscal wrestling – as analysts note a recent slowing of the economy – is taxing President Enrique Peña Nieto.  

He and his top aides are locking wills, brains and dreams with Mexico’s economic problems as they “negotiate” a convincing 2016 budget.  They face a discomfortingly close deadline of November 15.  And this takes place as the United States – alarmed by Mexico’s human rights “recklessness” – has just cut anti-drug funds.

This 2016 budget deadline, and a broad swath of pressure from Mexico’s veteran economic communities, has already prompted some reluctant, if necessary, changes of heart by the president.   Example:  In June, the president, speaking to Bloomberg Business News editor-in-chief John Micklethwit, surprisingly stopped short of promising to nominate Agustin Carstens to a second term at the helm of the Mexico’s central bank.  That alarmed many in the business and fiscal community.  Carstens is highly thought of by such people. 

Additionally, Peña Nieto was facing fresh accusations of corruption regarding the purchase of a pricey personal property, and growing alarm regarding unsolved killings (especially the massacre of 43 student teachers, still not solved), both of which caused a sharp decline in the president’s personal popularity.  

Under pressure by fiscal/economic analysts, Peña Nieto earlier this month made a sharp u-turn in proposing Carstens for a second six-year term.

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