The transfers that the federal government granted to Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) continued to increase towards the final stretch of 2025, far exceeding what was approved for that year, in addition to exceeding what was exercised in other spending areas such as housing, the environment, among others.
Data from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit showed that between January and November 2025, the transfers granted to the oil company, via the Ministry of Energy, totaled 392,000 million pesos.
This amount represented a historical level and exceeded the budget line that was approved for 2025 of 136,000 million pesos.
“The million-dollar supports that the federal government transfers to Pemex are closing the year at unprecedented levels. The pressure on public spending in the last stretch of the year is enormous and the possibility of fiscal consolidation is becoming increasingly distant,” the civil organization México Evalúa noted in an analysis.
The transfers that the federal government makes to Pemex, charged to the treasury, are given to try to improve the oil company’s financial situation.
At the end of September last year, Pemex’s debt exceeded $100 billion, according to company data.
Given the situation, the federal administration announced the 2025-2035 Strategic Plan for the oil company which seeks to make it self-sufficient by 2027, for which a fund of 250,000 million pesos will be created for the oil company’s investment projects.
Of this fund, the development bank seeks to finance at least half. Meanwhile, the rest will be provided through commercial banking and, subsequently, the investing public will be reached through financing structures.
Revenue decline
The analysis by México Evalúa indicated that the transfers made to Pemex reduce the government’s ability to obtain public income which, in turn, is what covers spending.
Between January and November, public revenues totaled just over 7.47 billion pesos, a growth of 5.9% annually.
This amount considers Pemex’s support, which consists of the debt buyback that occurred last September, which, although it was counted as a government expense, is presented in the reports as income from the oil company.
“The immediate effect (of the transfers) has been an erosion of the State’s collection capacity. This despite the fact that the federal government’s income exceeded expectations by obtaining 7.47 billion pesos, which is 1.7% more than expected (…) If the resources transferred to Pemex are discounted, the excess income was 6.2% lower than expected for the period,” said México Evalúa.
Pemex’s support, when counted as public spending, caused the resources used between January and November 2025 to increase and even exceed what was programmed.
In the first 11 months of 2025, total public spending was 8.46 trillion pesos, an annual growth of 2.5% and 35,000 million pesos above what was programmed; If the supports were discounted, spending would have been 2.6% below the program.
“The combined result of the expansion of spending and the erosion of collection efforts was a public deficit of 968.7 billion pesos. This figure is just 10.6% less than that recorded last year and is the second largest deficit in the last 35 years.”
