La Jornada: Investment in infrastructure skyrocketed during June: Treasury

Physical investment in the first half of this year remains 7.9 percent below that registered in the same period last year, although the gap has been narrowing and only in June was a rebound of 56.2 percent at an annual rate, reported the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

“Spending on tangible goods fell 7.9 percent in real terms annually, mainly due to lower expenditures on direct physical investment by the federal government and Petróleos Mexicanos, of 50.6 and 27.3 percent in real terms, respectively. This trend reflected a lag in budget execution during the first semester, which was partially reversed in June, when investment increased 56.2 percent in real terms annually,” the agency noted in the April-June quarterly report.

This growth “reflected greater dynamism in the dispersion of resources for strategic projects such as infrastructure, machinery, buildings and vehicles. With this, physical investment showed increases in infrastructure in works in the health, education and housing sectors, as well as in community services,” the Treasury detailed in its quarterly reports.

The drop in this spending, which covers construction, conservation of works and acquisition of goods, is located both in public companies –Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE)–, where the annual decrease in the first half of 2026 is 25.7 percent, and in the communications and transportation sector, in which the decrease is 42.5 percent.

Although the physical investment of public companies was 123,436 million pesos in the first half of the year, and represents a real drop of 25.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, in June this item showed a rebound.

The Treasury reports show that the expenditure for the construction, maintenance of works and acquisition of goods of the two State companies was lower due to a reduction in the expenditure made for projects in the energy sector, such as the case of the Olmeca refinery, of Pemex.

However, in June physical investment by the two public companies accelerated. Expenditure in this area was 35,591 million pesos, an increase of 214.1 percent in real terms; that is, discounting the effect of inflation.

Treasury data show that Pemex’s physical investment in the first six months of the year totaled 108,594 million pesos, an amount that represents a contraction of 27.3 percent compared to the same period in 2025.

Despite the reduction from January to June 2026, company spending for construction, conservation of works and acquisition of goods accelerated, reaching 32.34 million pesos, a growth of 339.6 percent compared to the 7.50 million pesos in the sixth month of 2025.

In the case of the CFE, physical investment in the first half of the year was 14,842 million pesos, a decrease of 12.2 percent in real terms compared to January-June 2025.

Only in the sixth month of the year, the electricity company’s spending in this area was 3,556 million pesos, and represented a real decrease of 12.1 percent compared to the 3,912 million pesos in the same period of 2025.

Compared to the first half of last year, the areas in which there is a rebound are education and health, where physical investment has made progress of 325.5 and 365.5 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the supply, drinking water and sewage sector registers an increase of 18.2 percent, the Treasury report published.