• BUSINESS: The economic shock from the coronavirus outbreak in Mexico is putting particularly at risk more than 1.8 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are younger than 5 years old given their little room for maneuver, according to management experts.
• NUMBERS: According to Mexico’s statistics agency (INEGI) most recent data, there is a total of 4.7 million SMEs but only 2.9 million of them are older than five years. Given the economic downturn from the closure of nonessential activities, many of the younger ones could not survive.
• CAPITAL: “For those (SMEs) recently formed…it’ll be difficult because it will affect their working capital. They will have very little money to acquire goods from their suppliers, they will have very little money to pay their employees”, said Héctor Magaña, a management expert at Tec de Monterrey.
• SUPPORT: Unlike many governments around the world, the Mexican government has not provided any kind of fiscal relief for businesses. On Wednesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said three banks would make available 1 million loans for small businesses of up to USD 1,000.
