Maintaining banking rules stabilized the economy: AMLO

Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, September 6, 2024, p. 12

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assured that maintaining the rules of the banking system – beneficial for businessmen in the sector – was a price to pay to sustain balance and stability in the country’s economy.

Questioned yesterday during his morning press conference at the National Palace on this matter, the head of the Executive pointed out that during his six-year term, which is about to end, bankers obtained record profits, which last year alone amounted to 272 billion pesos.

“You offered them not to change the rules, which have benefited them because they always have fabulous profits and the credit conditions are very expensive,” he was asked.

–Yes, but it is part of the balance that we must maintain. They did not change the rules, they continued investing in Mexico. And they guaranteed us, by not changing those rules, that economic and financial stability would be maintained. It is a price that must be paid, because it is very important to maintain these balances, of course, if the majority of the people are doing well – he responded.

Under his leadership, he insisted, both bankers and businessmen did very well, like never before in historyHe even recommended conducting a survey among the 30 or 40 most important national businessmen to find out the amount of their profits during this federal administration.

However, he noted, the rest of the population fared well, to the extent that during his term two historical scourges of Mexico were reduced: poverty and inequality. What has not happened in decades.

He exemplified that, according to data from Inegi, during Felipe Calderón’s government a rich person owned on average 34 times more than a poor person, and during his six-year term this difference has decreased to 15 times.

He stressed that the economic model applied by his government is based on supporting those at the bottom to strengthen the domestic market and generate consumption. This helps trade, industry and reaches all the way up..

The neoliberal model, on the other hand, is based on a sophism, in the lie that if things go well for those at the top, wealth comes down; as if wealth were contagious or permeable.

He stressed that while one of the three driving forces of the economy has been investment from the national private sector, foreign investment also plays a role.

Last year, he said, there was also a record in this area with an income of 35 billion dollars, and for the first half of 2024, foreign investment registered 30 billion dollars.