• ESTIMATES: The 10-week lockdown period across Mexico has caused a loss of US $26.5 billion to the country’s commercial and tourism sectors. According to industry groups, many small and medium-size enterprises could go bankrupt if the lockdown extends longer than 12 weeks.
• REOPENING: Starting last week, Mexico began a slow phased-in reopening of daily activities in some municipalities after the government issued health emergency on March 30. Most areas in Mexico are expected to begin a reopening of their local economies on June 1st.
• BANKRUPTCY: “The business sector urgently demands alternatives and financing mechanisms…to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic, which has thousands of firms on the brink of bankruptcy”, said José Manuel López, head of Mexico’s commercial and tourism chamber (CONCANACO).
• MODEST: Following a series of forecasts predicting a sharp contraction for Mexico, global rating agency Fitch said the Mexican government’s fiscal relief package against the coronavirus shock was among the weakest in the world. Today, Fitch predicted Mexico’s GDP will fall 7.4% in 2020
