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Energy has been, within the country’s productive apparatus, the main engine of development. Not only because it implies the force that pushes and sustains it, but also because it entails a set of values that make energy a seed of independence and a sovereign guarantor. It is for this set of reasons that it should be appreciated with the indispensable dignity. Establishing it firmly, as is required, induces a major series of consequences that are not negligible at all and are, moreover, convenient for an effective reproduction of the rest of the system. It can well be said that the energy industry can also be seen, and in its own right, as a retaining wall against the inflationary forces that afflict any economy at certain times. Although it can, at the same time, be one of the drivers of the opposite effect. That is, to become a fundamental agent of a harmful inflationary phenomenon. That, precisely, happens in today’s world and of which our organized life is a notable exception.
In today’s Mexico, energy has been an effective anti-inflationary antidote during the three years of this administration. And it has been because it was designed and decided to act as such. That is why, in a measurement of the effects of its performance, compared to that obtained among several nations, Mexican energy has been the one with the lowest participation in price escalation, among thirty countries, according to published measurement. by the OECD. Indeed, during the months of February and March, compared to what happened in those same months of the previous year, the inflation induced by energy in Mexico was the one that contributed the least (a meager 5.3 percent) to the unleashed phenomenon that afflicts several major economies. Whether it is the euro zone, where it contributed 44 percent, or the advantaged European Union as a whole, where it contributed 40 percent. In the same OECD affected by an impact of 33.7 percent and that included the crucial G-7 with 32 percent. They also studied the effects that energy produced on inflation in the economies of countries such as Latvia, 31 percent; Costa Rica (21.3), Switzerland (20.7), South Korea (19.8); New Zealand (18.2); Iceland (14.5) or Slovenia (8.7) and Hungary (6.8). In Mexico, on the other hand, inflation was boosted, between these February and March 2022 at only 5.3 percent
What was the reason for such a marginal impact? Undoubtedly to the surveillance and control work carried out in several simultaneous lines. All under government command and in accordance with effective public policies. By this should be understood agreements to set the electricity rates adopted by CFE for the collection of its services and products. Involved in this process are both the Ministry of Finance, which modulates the subsidy with the Ministry of Energy as the authority in the field, and the CRE, which, month after month, comes armed with a certain parameter of acceptable inflation. This arduous procedure is applied during all the months of the year and where the increases remain, by mandatory determination, below the inflation registered by the Inegi.
In addition to this complex agreement method, another additional method has been designed. One that involves LP gas, widely used in the country. To act, effectively, on an industry, previously left out in the open in its deformed activities, several courses of action were used. First, a precise mathematical formulation was worked on, accepted by the actors of the medium. This allowed the establishment of weekly ceiling prices that were immediately communicated to those affected: all LP gas permit holders registered with the CRE. The objective was the gradual reduction of the runaway profit margin, an issue that has been carried out week after week for the benefit of the consumer and the control of such a vital industry whose savings, in its individualized spending per household, reaches the figure of 20 thousand millions of pesos. Nor, despite criticism, have fuel shortages been recorded throughout the period. Finally, the tax sacrifice of public finances, in all oil products (gasoline and diesel) in multimillion-dollar amounts, has kept these prices low without resorting to debt. In this unique way, the pressures derived from an unjust war and punishments that obey the geopolitics of empires have been avoided.
Thus, the aim of influencing the improvement of the quality of life of citizens has been fulfilled, along with integrating a pivotal industry of balanced development. Achievements that have not been appreciated by some sectors of the population. In particular, the opposition criticism that does not explain the support of the people for the current government, for Morena and for the President and does adopt the narrative of harmful transnationals that falsely emphasize the use of clean energy.
