La Jornada: Mexico’s high potential for investment, says the OECD

The engine that remains to be started for the country to grow more is investment, summarized Alberto González Pandiella, head of the Mexico and Costa Rica team of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), when explaining why growth expectations for the country have been reduced.

“Mexico has great potential to attract investment, and that potential will be difficult to realize in a context of high uncertainty,” he stressed, exposing the reasons for the decline in the outlook for the Mexican economy, from 1.3 in March to 0.8 percent for the year.

At the international level, an annual review of the Mexico-United States-Canada Treaty would not provide greater certainty, so a longer period is needed to attract investment to the country. The conflict in the Middle East also weighs, which already has an impact on the global economy.

Regarding the domestic sector, judicial reform remains the main factor of uncertainty in Mexico, and although this factor is expected to fade over time, for the moment it is a significant factor, according to González Pandiella.

He reiterated that the great cost to the Mexican economy comes from investment, so one of the priorities of economic policy in the country is to increase income and improve the quality of spending so that a resource can be generated that goes to infrastructure and acquisition of equipment.

Since last year, the physical investment reported by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit has been falling. At least until April 2026, resources allocated to roads, ports, energy facilities, as well as machinery and equipment, fell 18.4 percent in the accumulated annual rate. The agency assures that this is due to the scheduling of the expense.

The other priority is digitalization, the OECD official added. He also maintained that inflation has been persistently above the Bank of Mexico’s goal, which is 3 percent with a range of one percentage point, but a moderation is expected in the face of low growth in the country.