Mexico: President Peña Nieto Denies Country’s Economic Crisis

By: Elena Toledo - 

Enrique Peña Nieto asked Mexicans to ignore sources who say that nothing good is going on in the country. (Presidencia de México)

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said his country is not experiencing an economic crisis, but rather a “moment of economic challenge” caused by the uncertain future of relations with the United States.
“We live in a time of economic challenges, but we do not have an economic crisis, Mr. Governor,” Peña Nieto told Hidalgo Chief of State Omar Fayad, who had said Mexico faces “economic difficulties.”
“We are in a challenging time because we have scenarios of uncertainty, particularly regarding what will happen with the relationship with the United States, who is our main trading partner,” he added. “But what is a fact is that several indicators allow us to see that the domestic consumption of our country is growing.”



Peña Nieto requested that people “not to be guided by the voices that want to forcefully condemn us to the fact that we are exclusively wrong. We have delays, we have challenges, but we also have considerable advancements.”
Regarding the increase in job creation figures released by the Mexican Social Security Institute this week, Peña Nieto said his throughout his six years in office, his administration has achieved the highest job creation figure recorded by any other Mexican government — more than 2.4 million jobs.

“It has been a historical relationship for many years,” Peña Nieto said. “They are our geographic neighbor, and that is a condition that we cannot change or modify.
“Our border strip communities and the relationship we have between both nations are in different areas. We are going to work in accordance with these principles, which I have pointed out to you here, to defend Mexico’s dignity, to exercise full national sovereignty, so that, in the end, what we build for the future of this relationship is win-win: so both Mexico and Americans win,” he said.
As for the latest figures taken by his administration, such as the increase in fuel prices, Peña Nieto said that “sometimes we have made difficult decisions, but we did so to prioritize what is more important to us. We cannot deny Mexicans the support they currently receive. We are not going to subtract or limit resources from government programs that help those who need it the most.”