Mexico

Crédito Real built a booming business lending at high interest rates to Mexican teachers and other government workers. The loans were paid back through payroll deduction, reducing the risk of nonpayment, the Wall Street Journal reported. Now it is planning to file for bankruptcy in Mexico after it has faced growing skepticism over how it has been reporting its earnings and measuring the size of its loan portfolio.

Mexico will bail out a flailing telecommunications company tasked with developing a wholesale national mobile network, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, Reuters reported. Mexico signed an agreement to become the majority stakeholder in Altan Redes, which filed for bankruptcy in 2021, Lopez Obrador said in a regular news conference.

Bank of Mexico Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath said on Friday that the central bank is likely to raise its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points at its next meeting scheduled for June 23, according to local media, Reuters reported. "Obviously we have to vote ... In my personal opinion, there will be a majority and we're going to see an increase of 75 base points," Heath said during a forum in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo organized by Mexico's Stock Exchange.

Mexican airline Grupo Aeromexico will propose leaving the country's main stock exchange to shareholders in a meeting scheduled at the end of June, the carrier said in a statement Friday, Reuters reported. Aeromexico came out of chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. Read more.

Credito Real SAB, Mexico’s largest payroll lender, which fell into default earlier this year, is preparing a potential bankruptcy filing in the US as soon as this week, Bloomberg News reported. The non-bank lender is looking to line up financing from existing creditors to help fund the bankruptcy process. The company has been working with creditors on a restructuring plan that would allow it to continue operating, after it failed to repay holders of a maturing Swiss franc bond. Authorities said they don’t see a contagion risk on Credito Real’s default to the country’s financial system.

The Mexican Auto Industry Association (AMIA) expects a slow recovery in the supply of semiconductor chips to the country, an essential component for the production of vehicles, the group's director said at a news conference on Monday, Reuters reported. "We're seeing that there will be a recovery but it won't be at the end of this year, nor during the next," AMIA director Fausto Cuevas said. Mexican automotive production and exports in May rose compared to the same month a year earlier, data from national statistics agency (INEGI) showed earlier on Monday.

Mexico's central bank signaled concerns over rising inflation, made worse by global supply constraints and the war in Ukraine, as it raised its key rate by 50 basis points to 7.0%, minutes from the latest monetary policy meeting showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. "Most members stated that the balance of risks for the trajectory of inflation within the forecast horizon remains biased to the upside and has continued deteriorating," the Bank of Mexico said in the latest minutes.

Mexican annual inflation eased slightly in the first half of May compared to the previous two-week period, but inflationary pressures remained well above the central bank's target, official data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Headline inflation dipped to 7.58% in early May from 7.65% during the last two weeks of April, the latest figures published by national statistics agency INEGI showed. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast a rate of 7.60%. Compared with the previous two-week period, consumer prices fell 0.06% during the first half of May, INEGI said.

Mexican inflation is forecast to have slowed in the first half of May, although still far above central bank targets, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, reinforcing expectations of continued interest rate hikes through the rest of the year. The median forecast of 10 analysts surveyed was for annual consumer price inflation to have dropped to 7.58% in the first half of May, down from 7.65% in the second half of April. Annual core inflation, which strips out some volatile food and energy items, was seen at 7.22%, down slightly from 7.27% in the previous two weeks.

Mexico's economy is thought to have expanded between January and March for the first time in three quarters, driven by domestic consumption and a rebound in exports, a Reuters survey showed on Monday. Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have grown 1.1% in the first quarter from the previous three-month period in seasonally adjusted terms, according to the median forecast of 12 analysts polled. The economy posted no growth in the fourth quarter and shrunk by 0.7% in the third quarter of last year.