Amid this week’s flurry of news, the release of the World Bank’s (WB) report on regional growth prospects went unnoticed, as it will hold its 2025 annual meetings in Washington, D.C., from October 13 to 18.
The report indicates that the Latin American and Caribbean region continues its efforts to revive growth and create more and better jobs, but progress remains limited.
“Although the regional growth rate for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is expected to increase slightly from 2.2 percent in 2024 to 2.3 percent in 2025, this marginal improvement masks downward revisions to growth projections for many economies in the region.”
This is not the case for Mexico, as the organization revised its growth projections upward for this year and next.
The World Bank estimates that the Mexican economy will grow 0.5 percent in 2025, an upward revision from the 0.2 percent forecast last June.
Even so, the estimated growth for this year implies a sharp slowdown compared to the 1.4 percent observed in 2024.
According to the report, “Mexico’s growth is expected to slow in 2025 as the momentum from large public infrastructure projects dissipates and increased trade restrictions, particularly new U.S. tariffs, begin to weigh on external demand.”
Mexico is among the countries with the lowest growth in the region; in fact, in 2025 it would have the third worst performance in LAC, after Haiti and Bolivia, whose economies, according to World Bank projections, will register contractions of 2.0 and 0.5 percent, respectively.
For 2026, the international organization anticipates Mexico’s growth of 1.4 percent, higher than the 1.1 percent forecast four months earlier.
Meanwhile, for 2027, its forecast for our economy’s growth was raised from 1.8 to 1.9 percent.
Assuming the World Bank’s expectations for the three years—2025, 2026, and 2027—are met, Mexico would have average annual growth of 1.3 percent during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first three-year term.
This growth is not only moderate, but insufficient to offset the poor economic performance of the previous six-year term.
But there is also good news, such as the fact that this week the Mexican president presented the Mexico Plan and its objectives at the National Palace to 60 global business leaders from 17 member countries of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
According to Marisol Argueta, WEF director for Latin America, the meeting provided a firsthand look at Mexico’s economic and political situation and an assessment of investment opportunities in the country.
Interviewed by this reporter, she said Sheinbaum gave a very detailed presentation of the development pillars contained in Plan Mexico and also of the competitive advantages offered in the country’s different regions.
“She also presented us with the public and private investment plan for infrastructure projects and shared details about the innovation project, which involves developing capacities and skills to take advantage of the demographic dividend.”
Despite the uncertainties, these Mexican government plans “are viewed with great optimism and confidence” by the organization, which brings together global business leaders in Davos each year.
At the meeting with Sheinbaum, “one of the participants announced a billion-dollar investment from Salesforce. Marc Benioff, its founder and global CEO, was with us. He mentioned that they had evaluated different countries based on the opportunities and conditions they offered and made the decision to make this investment in Mexico.”
Argueta affirms that “the country has many advantages, such as its geographical location, access to the world’s largest market, proximity to two oceans, its ties to Latin America, and, of course, its economy, which is number 15 in the world with a population of 133 million, which make it very attractive.”
Source: elfinanciero
