During September, investment in fixed capital by Mexican companies fell after an incipient series of improvements, confirming that this is the component of aggregate demand with the most erratic recovery path.
In said month, the indicator fell 1.6% monthly after having grown 2.4% and 1.6% during July and August, respectively. In the last six months it has had three of advances and three of setbacks, according to the figures reported yesterday by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (Inegi).
The dynamics in September was due to setbacks in the two large components of capital spending. While machinery and equipment contracted 1.6%, construction contracted 1.5%, dragged down by the 4% decline observed in residential construction.
“Until the ninth month of the year, the accumulated annual variation of investment is 11.2% compared to the fall of 18.3% in 2020. Furthermore, its recovery lacks the dynamism that other variables of the Mexican economy have shown, something that could be influenced by the local context of uncertainty in key sectors such as energy and automotive, ”commented Marcos Arias, an analyst at Grupo Financiero Monex in a report.
In this month, the capital expenditure of Mexican companies was 8.1% lower in its biannual comparison, that is, compared to September 2019 (prior to the pandemic) with which the negative differential widened again after the -7.2% of August 2021.
Cumulatively, from January to September, investment was 11.2% higher than in the same period of 2020, but 10.4% lower than in the corresponding period in 2019, which is why it is the component of aggregate demand that lags the most in the process. economic reactivation.
“The weakness of investment in Mexico has been present long before the pandemic, and it is mainly due to the fact that the environment is not favorable for doing business. Political and economic uncertainty have put a brake on investment since the cancellation of the construction of the new airport in 2018, as well as other government decisions that have cast doubt on the confidence in the country’s institutions, “said Grupo Financiero Base in a report.
At the level of subcomponents, the item of investment in transportation equipment is the one with the greatest lag, with a drop of 20.7% during the first nine months of the year, in relation to the same period of 2019 but, according to the Financial Group Base this This data could be influenced by the lack of inventory to satisfy the demand of the industry, in the midst of the crisis of shortage of semiconductors for the assembly of motor vehicles.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx