Mexico President Defends Handling Of Pandemic Economy, Says Country Fared Better Than UK, Spain, France, Italy

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed on Tuesday that his country’s economy has fared better than others amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Obrador made the assertion during a state of the union speech defending his own handling of the virus’s impact, despite Mexico seeing its worst downturn since the Great Depression.

“The economy’s contraction, despite the global disaster, was 10.4% during the first half of the year,” Obrador said. “But despite the collapse the damage was smaller than in Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom.”

In the second quarter, Mexico’s economy, the second-biggest in Latin America, shrank 17%. By contrast, Brazil, the biggest, shrank by only 9.7% during the same period, attributed mostly to a spending program meant to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

Obrador has continued to assert that Mexico’s economy will follow a v-shaped trajectory on the path to recovery. This path would see a sharp decline followed by an equally sharp comeback.

“We have faced the pandemic and we are going to get out of the economic crisis without taking on additional external debt and without allocating public money to immoral bailouts,” he continued.

Obrador’s handling of the virus has faced harsh criticism from Mexican citizens, with representatives from various labor groups holding protests outside the National Palace at one point over the government’s perceived failure to support workers.

Activists have also criticized the government for not providing a “quarantine salary” to offset the effects of various lockdowns.