Georgina Saldierna
Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday April 30, 2022, p. eleven
During the past year, Mexico registered an annual growth of 4.8 percent, a figure that is within the range foreseen in the approved economic package, which was between 3.6 and 5.6 percent.
The foregoing is established in the 2021 public account that the Ministry of Finance sent to the Chamber of Deputies, which indicates that there was a recovery in almost all sectors of the economy, although its magnitude and growth were uneven, depending on the progress of the covid-19 pandemic, its initial impact and the characteristics of the activities. In this way, agricultural production grew at a real annual rate of 2.9 percent, industrial production at 6.5 percent and services at 4.1.
The document highlights that the economic trajectory of 2021 continued to depend on the evolution of infections, although it remained in the process of resuscitation, since there were no severe confinements as in 2020, there was a better adaptation of people and companies to restrictions and sanitary measures, as well as advances in global vaccination and new treatments to treat the disease.
Remember that in the first months the greatest lethality of the virus and difficulties in reestablishing the installed productive capacity were observed. Additionally, in February industrial activities suffered a setback due to natural gas supply cuts due to frosts in the United States.
In the third quarter, the problems of bottlenecks and increases in the prices of raw materials worsened, as well as the depletion of inventories of industrial supplies, factors that as a whole had repercussions mainly on services with greater physical contact and on some industries such as the automotive industry, as well as in inflation, which was higher than expected.
At the local level, an additional element was brought together, which was the reconfiguration of various economic activities due to the implementation of legal reforms in terms of labor subcontracting, which did not affect internal demand, but did affect GDP accounting. Thus, by the end of last year there was a heterogeneous economic reactivation between sectors and regions, close to the pre-pandemic levels of 2020.
It stands out that in 2021 inflation stood at 7.36 percent and the 28-day Cetes rate was 5.5 percent, which represented an increase of 1.25 percentage points compared to the end of the previous year, and the average exchange rate was of 20.3 pesos per dollar, lower by 5.7 percent compared to 2020.
The current account of the balance of payments recorded a deficit equivalent to 0.4 percent of GDP and the export price of the Mexican mixture of crude oil stood at 65.3 dollars per barrel on average, higher by 29.07 dollars than that registered a year earlier, product of the excess demand for energy.
