(Bloomberg) -- President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held onto the view that Mexico could see economic growth of 2% this year even after the International Monetary Fund cut the country's outlook.
Lopez Obrador went so far as to say such organizations should apologize to the people of Mexico and be more self critical.
“I don't have much confidence in those organizations, with all due respect,” Lopez Obrador said in his morning news conference. “They were the ones that pushed neoliberal policies that caused so much misfortune in Mexico.”
Mexico will grow 0.9% this year, according to a July update of the IMF's World Economic Outlook. In April the financial agency predicted 1.6% growth for the country. “Investment remains weak and private consumption has slowed, reflecting policy uncertainty, weakening confidence, and rising borrowing costs, which could climb further following the recent sovereign rating downgrade,” the IMF said.
Lopez Obrador emphasized that such viewpoints are only a forecast and “we're going to wait” for the official data. The president has repeatedly dismissed economists and analysts who've reduced their outlooks for Mexico's economy, saying they're nostalgic for neoliberalism.
“We will no longer use growth as the only parameter,” Lopez Obrador said. “Because growth is only that wealth is generated, but it may be that growth only means accumulation of wealth for a few.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Dale Quinn in Mexico City at dquinn40@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ney Hayashi at ncruz4@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson
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