Undersecretary Of SHCP Expects MX Debt To Reach 48.8% Of GDP In 2024; 3.8% More Than In 2018.

Mica for cartelinsider.com

Mexico would close this year with a debt level in relation to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 48.8 percent, 3.8 percent more than in 2018, at the beginning of the Government led by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, according to the estimations of Gabriel Yorio Gonzalez, Head of the Deputy Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of the same-named Secretariat, on February 28, 2024.

In statements given in a podcast by Grupo Financiero Banorte, S.A.B. de C.V.,, released on the same day, the federal official added that the country did not require a tax reform to be able to solve fiscal imbalances and asserted that public finances were “on a sustainable path.”

According to Yorio González, the debt-to-GDP ratio of Mexico during 2023 was 46.8 percent. The undersecretary also recalled that the economic program for 2024 was going to keep the debt below 50 percent, a goal established by the Ministry of Finance. “We are estimating that it will be around 48.8 and perhaps, in fact, less, 48.5 percent,” he added.

“When the Administration began, the debt was at 45 percent of GDP. It remained at this level during the first year of the Administration, but then we had the impact of COVID [coronavirus SARS-CoV-2] which increased the debt to almost 52 percent. At that point, we had to determine a new strategy and we have been reducing it every year, and currently it will be between 46 and 47 percent,” the federal official stated.

“Mexico at this moment does not need a fiscal reform in order to address fiscal imbalances. Public finances are on a sustainable path,” said the undersecretary, who also recalled that in past administrations some adjustments had to be made – such as raising the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 15 to 16 percent – to address external shocks or imbalances in public finances.”

“This does not currently exist, which is why I have said many times that an urgent reform is not needed to balance fiscal aggregates,” Yorio González emphasized in the podcast.

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