AMLO: Mexico’s economy will be in global top 10 within decades

July 13, 2023

AMLO at morning press conference — At the Thursday morning press conference, the president highlighted projections that show Mexico could be one of the world's top 10 economies within a few decades. (Gob MX)

President López Obrador noted Thursday that Mexico is projected to become one of the world’s top 10 economies in the coming decades.

“Yesterday, or the day before yesterday, I was looking at some statistics where they make projections into the future, and in some decades Mexico will be among the 10 countries with the greatest economic strength,” he told reporters at his morning news conference.

Monterrey, Nuevo León, is one of the hotspots for manufacturing in Mexico. (Depositphotos)

Mexico is currently the 14th largest economy in the world with a gross domestic product of US $1.41 trillion in 2022. In 2017, professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that Mexico will be the 7th largest economy in the world in 2050.

Since then, the Mexican economy has suffered a sharp COVID-induced downturn in 2020 before recording growth of 4.8% and 3.1% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Buoyed by manufacturing activity, tourism and inflows of foreign investment and remittances, among other factors, Mexico’s GDP expanded 3.9% in annual terms in the first quarter of 2023.

López Obrador said that Mexico is currently “very attractive” for foreign investors, who injected over US $18 billion into the economy in the first quarter of the year.

Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro at a meeting on semiconductor supply chains in North America. (Raquel Buenrostro/Twitter)

“It’s one of the countries that is receiving the most foreign investment in the world,” he said, adding that Mexico is also among the top nations for “financial and economic stability.”

López Obrador also touted the “competitive advantages” of investing and doing business in Mexico, among which are affordable labor costs and proximity to the United States.

Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said late last year that over 400 North American companies intended to relocate from Asia to Mexico, while the Mexican Association of Private Industrial Parks is predicting that more than 450 foreign firms will move here during 2024 and 2025.

The governor of Nuevo León — a hub for foreign manufacturing firms — said earlier this year that the growing nearshoring phenomenon could spur annual economic growth of up to 10% in Mexico.

While there are “circumstances of crisis and risk” around the world, “the planets are aligning for our country,” Samuel García said at a business event in March.

With reports from Aristegui Noticias and La Jornada