Banco de Mexico’s program to lend to crisis-hit businesses is independent from the central government and won’t directly affect the federal budget. Still, Lopez Obrador warned that his government will monitor the lending agreements closely, and said that it should only go to smaller companies.
“We have to be careful with Banco de Mexico support,” he said. “We will be watching.”
The president also took issue with a $12 billion loan program set up by IDB Invest, the private finance arm of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. Lopez Obrador said that the government would not give its approval and called the initiative an imposition.
“I don’t like the way that they reach agreements and want to impose their plans,” he said.
The program is meant to
fund 30,000 micro, small and medium-sized firms and was made after an agreement with the Mexican business group Consejo Mexicano de Negocios (CMN).
A Finance Ministry spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a joint statement from the IDB and CMN on Sunday said that the ministry had backed the program. It is unclear whether the President’s opposition could scuttle the deal.
Lopez Obrador has so far resisted calls for large fiscal stimulus programs of the type announced by other governments across the region, or company bailouts to support the Mexican economy amid the spread of the coronavirus and a slump in oil prices. He has rejected any bailouts for big companies and says that he intends to defend Mexico’s fiscal position.
Bloomberg