Mexico prepared for US shutdown

thenews.com.mx
Published on Wednesday, 02 October 2013
THE NEWS


The shutdown of the U.S. government will not seriously affect Mexico, as it promises to be a temporary event, Mexican Banking Association (ABM) President Alberto Gómez Alcalá said on Tuesday.

All non-essential government spending in the U.S. was temporarily cancelled on Tuesday after the White House and House Republicans failed to approve a budget due to Republican attempts to delay the implementation of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The shutdown cancelled spending on social programs, put 800,000 government works on unpaid leave and closed parks and museums run by the federal government. Border crossings and customs are not affected.

Economist Intelligence Unit analyst Joseph Lake was more pessimistic, saying that the shutdown could create uncertainty in financial markets around the world, but above all in Mexico and Central America, due to their proximity to the United States. “On top of the impact of lower demand in the U.S., exports will also suffer,” Lake said.

“We’re very worried about what’s happening in the United States,” Business Coordination Council (CCE) President Gerardo Gutiérrez Candiani said, adding that, prior to the shutdown, the U.S. economy had been growing faster than the Mexican economy for the first time in years. This had helped boost the Mexican economy, he said, due to its trade dependence on its neighbor to the north — 80 percent of Mexican exports are sold in the United States. According to CNN, the shutdown could cost the U.S. economy around $1 billion per week.