Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced yesterday that the government proposes to eliminate three departments and increase taxes in an effort to boost the country’s economy and turn attention to poverty-fighting programs. According to Finance Minister Agustin Carstens, these measures are estimated to reduce government spending by 218 billion pesos ($16.3 billion and 1.8 percent of GDP) and will hopefully help achieve a balanced budget in 2012. Part of the proposal specifies that Mexico’s tourism, agricultural reform and civil service ministries will be “phased out.”
President Calderón called the proposal “a drastic and unprecedented adjustment in the exercise of public spending” which “considers the seriousness of the circumstances that we’re facing.” He also alluded to the importance of poverty-alleviation saying that “in the difficult situation in which millions of Mexicans are living…in a country that faces serious needs…the government should be synonymous with service, not privilege.”
