Mexican carrier Aeromexico said yesterday that its creditors have overwhelmingly approved the company's restructuring plan as part of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Aeromexico said in a statement that the voting ended on 7 Jan. and 86% of the creditors who voted backed the plan. "The conclusion of the voting process and the strong support from the company's creditors represents a key milestone in Aeromexico's restructuring process," the company said. It also puts Aeromexico in a strong position to "obtain Court approval for the plan", the company added.

Mexico’s government said it had slashed Petroleos Mexicanos’ debt burden by $3.2 billion through a refinancing operation, Bloomberg News reported. The government swapped debt that was expiring soon for a new bond with a maturity of 10 years, while also refinancing some medium maturity debt that was cheap, according to a statement from the Finance Ministry. The operation will reduce the “financial pressure” on Pemex by $10.5 billion between 2024 and 2030, the ministry said, adding that the refinancing wouldn’t reduce the fiscal budget.

Mexico central bank board member Jonathan Heath sounded the alarm about accelerating core inflation, saying in a series of tweets that the situation “looks grave” and may signal a structural problem, Bloomberg News reported. Even though annual inflation at the end of 2021 was marginally slower than in November and even slower than analyst forecasts, it isn’t good news because core prices are rising faster, Heath said. The annual core figure stood at 6% in the last half of December. It “signals the persistence of a more inertial or even structural problem,” Heath said in one Twitter post.

Mexico's central bank signaled concern over rising inflation and labor costs as its board voted last month to raise its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 5.50%, minutes from the latest monetary policy meeting showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. "All members mentioned that headline and core inflation expectations for 2021, 2022 and for the next 12 months increased again, along with medium-term expectations, while long-term expectations have remained stable at levels above the target," the Bank of Mexico said in the latest minutes.

Passenger traffic at Grupo Aeromexico in December reached its highest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mexican airline said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Aeromexico transported 1.74 million passengers last month, or 98.9% of the 1.76 million people it moved in December 2019, the company said in a statement. Aeromexico's total offer, measured in available seat-kilometers (ASKs), was equivalent to 82.6% of the capacity of December 2019, the company said. Domestic capacity was up 13.6% from December 2019, while international capacity was 70.7% of that month.

Mexico's annual auto sales rose by 6.8% in 2021, but were still far short of pre-pandemic levels as the car industry struggles to cope with shortfalls in semiconductors, official data showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Mexico sold 1,014,680 light vehicles last year, according to figures from the national statistics agency (INEGI) after sales fell 27.9% to 950,063 in 2020, a nine-year low. There were 1.3 million vehicles sold in 2019 before the pandemic while 2016 saw a record 1.6 million sales.

Mexico’s central bank isn’t committed to a pace of half-point increases to its benchmark interest rate after delivering a hike of that magnitude in December, according to outgoing Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon, Bloomberg News reported. The bank announced a bigger-than-expected increaseto borrowing costs last week, following four straight quarter-point hikes, in an effort to combat skyrocketing inflation. Diaz de Leon, who leaves office at year-end, said policy makers are navigating “uncharted territory” and shouldn’t constrain themselves before future decisions.

An Aeromexico creditor on Monday objected to the Mexican airline's restructuring plan to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saying the proposal would unfairly benefit majority shareholder Delta Air Lines Inc., Reuters reported. Invictus Global Management said in a public letter to Delta's board of directors that it opposed the plan put forward by Aeromexico. Aeromexico last week said that an unnamed third party would make a tender offer valuing its outstanding shares at a fraction of their previous market price as part of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy.

Mexican carrier Aeromexico on Thursday said an unnamed third party would make a tender offer valuing its oustanding shares at a fraction of their previous market price as part of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. News of the planned tender offer, which would offer 0.01 peso for each outstanding share, sent its shares tumbling nearly 75%. Shares in the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States last year amid the pandemic, closed at 3.89 pesos on Wednesday. They were trading at 1.84 pesos in early afternoon in Mexico.

Mexican annual inflation accelerated faster than expected in November to its highest level in over two decades, official data showed on Thursday, reinforcing bets the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate again when it meets next week, Bloomberg News reported. Figures from national statistics agency INEGI showed inflation in Latin America's No. 2 economy jumped to 7.37% last month from 6.24% in October. That compared with the consensus forecast of a Reuters poll for 7.22%.