Mexico

Mexico wants to reduce its dependence on imports from China and is asking some of the world’s biggest manufacturers and tech firms operating in the country to identify Chinese products and parts that could be made locally, the Wall Street Journal reported. The administration of leftist President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office last week, wants U.S.

The Bank of Mexico's governing board may consider larger cuts to its benchmark interest rate going forward as inflation in Latin America's second largest economy cools, bank governor Victoria Rodriguez told Reuters in an interview late on Monday. Banxico, as the Mexican central bank is known, lowered its key rate by 25 basis points to 10.50% on Thursday, the second straight cut as price pressures ease. It previously cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point in March.

Mexico’s headline inflation slowed more than expected in early September, giving Banco de Mexico room to cut borrowing costs for a second straight month at this week’s interest rate meeting, Bloomberg News reported. Official data published Tuesday showed consumer prices rose 4.66% in the first two weeks of the month from the same period a year earlier, just below the 4.71% median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The print was under the 4.83% reading in the previous two-week period.

A recent flurry of judicial and economic rule changes has served as a reminder of just how unpredictable operating in Latin America can be, denting the region’s appeal for foreign investors already weary after years of sub-par returns, Bloomberg News reported.

Mexico’s annual inflation slowed roughly in line with expectations in August as a spike in food prices faded, giving the central bank more room to consider another interest rate cut this month, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 4.99% from a year earlier, a touch below the 5.06% median estimate from analysts in a Bloomberg survey, the national statistics institute reported on Monday. Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as fuel, eased to 4%, at the top of the bank’s target range of 3% plus or minus one percentage point.

Foreign business chambers have been warning for weeks that a proposed overhaul of Mexico’s judiciary, that would make judges stand for election, will hurt foreign businesses and endanger investment in Mexico, the Associated Press reported. And President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum has spent weeks trying to calm those fears, saying it’s simply a pro-democracy measure. But on Friday, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who came up with the plan — confirmed that the sweeping changes are indeed aimed directly at foreign firms.

The Bank of Mexico cut its forecast for economic growth this year and next, according to the central bank's quarterly report on Wednesday, citing weaker foreign manufacturing demand while inflation remains stubborn, Reuters reported. The central bank for Latin America's No. 2 economy now expects 2024 gross domestic product growth of 1.5%, down from a previous forecast of 2.4%, and 1.2% growth next year from a prior forecast of 1.5%.