For next year, the State of Mexico projects a debt of 9.5 billion pesos, whose resources will be invested in three mobility projects; two of them correspond to improving connectivity to the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport, informed Rodrigo Jarque Lira, head of the local Finance Secretariat.
In an interview with El Economista, he assured that this new financing is necessary to achieve a better economic reactivation, since the three infrastructure works will be the most important and largest for the entity in 2022.
“The infrastructure generates jobs and economic activity. If you invest in public works, a chain of jobs is detonated, “he said, adding that they also derive from an agreement with the federal government to improve communication in the Valley of Mexico and with the new airport point in the region.
Another reason for accessing this debt is that the Mexican entity currently has the best market conditions among all the sub-nationals, since it has worked in recent years to strengthen public finances.
“The State of Mexico, due to its good rating and good financial management, has good ratings, Fitch and HR Ratings recently raised our rating, even in this year, which is still complicated by the pandemic, they raised it to AA +. We have the best market conditions among all the states ”, he assured.
Credit notes
It should be noted that the HR Ratings agency raised the credit rating of the State of Mexico from “HR AA-” to “HR AA +”, derived from a solid performance of its public finances.
The upward revision is due to the fiscal strength that the entity maintains, since despite the adverse economic context and the health contingency, it achieved a balanced primary balance in 2020, through adequate control over current spending.
At the same time, last year it paid off its short-term debt and continued with a high level of public investment financed through state resources.
The State of Mexico is the only entity in the country that has raised its credit rating by 11 levels (from “BB-” to “AA +”).
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings raised the long-term rating on the national scale to “AA + (mex)” from “AA (mex)”, with a stable outlook.
“The improvement in the rating reflects the efforts to contain operating expenses and the application of austerity measures, as well as a result of the efforts in terms of income that allowed maintaining the collection of the Payroll Tax and Vehicle Ownership”, it reads in the report.
Jarque Lira recalled that in 2018 the administration of Alfredo Del Mazo Maza carried out a restructuring to reduce the surcharge from 91 to 34 basis points, thus generating savings of 4,500 million pesos.
“We are investing where people need it most and that will help us to reactivate the economy. Once the financing is authorized, the bids will be held, private commercial banks will participate, Banobras, the one that offers the best conditions in terms of rates and terms are the ones that will win in a very transparent process ”, he assured.
According to the secretary, the first project to be developed is the Chalco-Santa Martha mass transit system corridor, whose investment for next year is 5,245 million pesos.
“It began in 2021 with an investment of more than 2,000 million pesos. This year it is continuing and the strongest part is coming, of these 5,000 million, in total; for all this project are more than 7,200 million investment “, he said.
The other two projects that were agreed with the Federation for greater access to the Felipe Ángeles airport refer to the extension of lines 1 and 4 of the Mexibús.
“We have the extension of the Mexibús Line 4 (Indios Verdes to Tecámac) that is worth 350 million pesos. The extension of Mexibús Line 1, from Ciudad Azteca to Ojo de Agua, which will also make the Felipe Angeles International Airport viable, is 328 million; these are the largest and most emblematic projects for the entity next year ”, he pointed out.
He specified that in 2021 a series of works were carried out to improve Line 1 of the Mexibús, where 200 million pesos were assigned; “Therefore, we are continuing with this project, a total of 500 million for the two years.”
“All governments have different tools, such as their own income and participations, but also financing (…) Among the three projects, Chalco, Lines del Mexibús 1 and 4, we are talking about 6,000 million pesos, it is 62 % of what we are requesting is to cover these obligations, it is productive indebtedness. This amount of debt represents 2.9% of the state budget, ”he said.
objectives
Derived from the fact that last Sunday the 2022 Tax Package was delivered to the local Congress (made up of the initiatives of the Municipal Income Law, Income Law and Expenditure Budget), the official explained that for 2022 the budget amount is of 326,497 million pesos, which represents a growth in real terms of 3.9% compared to 2021.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx