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Head of Public Finance Denies Mexico City 5 Billion Subway Funds

Treasury and Public Finance Secretariat Luis Videgaray Caso affirmed that the federation will not be able to grant Mexico City’s government the 5 billion pesos its mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera sought for the the acquisition of public transportation.

Mayor Mancera’s request for 5 billion pesos was rejected by the Mexico’s head of public finance. Photo: Cuartoscuro/Tercero Díaz.

The federal official mentioned that, due to the economic complexity of the world economic situation, it would not be possible to grant these funds but help could be provided to obtain a credit on the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank, or other paths. 

“Given the global macroeconomic situation, it is not possible at this time to meet a request of this nature, not from Mexico City or any state. However, we have told the Mexico City mayor and his team our best will to work to find other possible sources of finance such as, for example, the World Bank or the the Inter-American Development Bank or international financial markets”, he stated. 

The country’s head of public finance specified that the city’s government could exploit opportunities to render its expenditure more efficient, so as to be able to allocate through more efficient spending greater resources to the modernization of public transportation.

Treasury and Public Finance Secretariat Luis Videgaray Caso denied the Mexico City the funds but offered help obtaining loans. Photo: Cuartoscuro/Moisés Pablo.

Videgaray Caso insisted he kept a close and constructive relationship with Mexico City’s mayor to find solutions despite the global macroeconomic context, given that he agrees a more environment-friendly transportation is needed in Mexico City as in the rest of the country.

Interviewed after the inauguration of the Forum Strategic Fiscal Precinct Proposal for Expansion of Benefits, the head of public finance spoke about the Pre criteria of economic policy for 2017, stating that this is not the budget proposal that they will be turning in next September but a preliminary estimation.

What Pre criteria sought, he said, is to send a very clear message of responsable public finance management, and that the government of the republic will accomplish this with the pre-established goals of deficit reduction and of deficit and public debt.

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