Vaccine roll-out bolstering Mexico's recovery, says Minister of the Economy

An accelerated vaccine roll-out program will help Mexico recover economically and find new opportunities after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Tatiana Clouthier, Mexico's Minister of the Economy.

On Thursday, Clouthier participated in a ‘Mexico Conference' organized by the New York City-based Council of the Americas and Mexico's Ministry of Finance. The event brought together a number of government officials and private sectors leaders to discuss the prospects for economic recovery and the economic opportunities that are present more than one year after the beginning of the pandemic.

In her remarks, Clouthier said that she believes that Mexico's vaccine campaign - which has now reached adults between the ages of 50 to 59 - will be key to jump starting Mexico's economic recovery.

"The vaccines will diminish concerns," she said. "It's fundamental that we have already had people that are economically active be vaccinated. That allows economic activity to resume."

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As of May 9 more than 9.4 million Mexicans have been fully vaccinated, while more than 14 million have at least one vaccine dose.

"Things have been moving positively. That has taken away a bit of what was needed in terms of prevention," she added. "More people can work and begin recovering, both in the informal and formal sectors."

"Companies have been able to continue tele-work, but also production and restarting various sectors of the economy. One of these has been tourism," Clouthier said. "It's all about protocols. [Private sector] companies and authorities have been able to help in this way. The processes of reactivation are gaining speed, compared to what we had a few months ago."

The overall concept of ‘wellness', she added, will also play an important part, in which the private sector will play a key role.

"This is linked to the private sector. We can't have wellness without growth, and we can't have growth without jobs, and job creation," she said. "It isn't only about competitiveness and jobs." 

It's fundamental that we have already had people that are economically active be vaccinated. That allows economic activity to resume

In her remarks, Clouthier also expressed optimism that T-MEC - the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement - will play an important role in helping Mexico recover.

"It is an ocean of possibilities. Despite the pandemic, a great part of our exports were to the US," she said. "This strengthened our country. It permitted us to have income, and money to reach producers at every level."

In April, Mexico upped its forecast GDP growth from 5.3% from 4.6% percent.

Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez, Mexico's Minister of Finance and Public Credit, said at the event that the earlier forecast did not take into account Mexico's vaccine drive.

"The previous budget was presented in September, before we signed contracts with pharmaceutical companies fort vaccines," he said. "There were variables we didn't have the answer to."

According to Gutiérrez, Mexico has 250 million vaccines on order - of both the one-dose and two-dose variants - which is enough to vaccinate 140 million people. Mexico has only 92 million people above the age of 16. 

The previous budget was presented in September, before we signed contracts with pharmaceutical companies fort vaccines

"Many parents, especially mothers, will be able to get back to their work," he said. "In two weeks, every teacher in the country will be vaccinated....this shows we are in the process of re-opening."

Gutiérrez added that Mexico's recovery will also be closely linked to that of the US. A number of states - including the border states of Baja California and Chihuahua - have seen their economies grow in recent months, in some cases better than pre-pandemic.

"It's because there is more economic activity in the United States," he added. "It looks like this is under control." 

This is linked to the private sector. We can't have wellness without growth, and we can't have growth without jobs, and job creation

However, Gutiérrez warned against focusing solely on the pandemic - and used the impact of US-China as an example.

"Sometimes we forget what we faced before the pandemic," he said. "The US-China tensions, for example, require that part of the value chain go elsewhere. We have to find a way to find certainty.

Additionally, Gutiérrez said that the pandemic starkly highlighted inequality in Mexican society, making it an ‘obligation' to come back with a different perspective than before.

"The form of facing the pandemic has been collective action," he said. "There's a new solidarity, which we should build upon to ensure we go towards a better society than we had before the pandemic."