Mexico Asks Top Banks to Back Energy, Road Plans Next Week

Article content

(Bloomberg) — Lea en español

Article content

Mexico will unveil a slate of infrastructure and energy projects next week as the government seeks to ramp up public-private investment projects this year, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday.

Article content

Article content

The Finance Ministry and state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos would detail plans next Tuesday and Wednesday, the president said during her daily media briefing. In a meeting Tuesday, she discussed increasing credit with the country’s top banks.

Article content

Article content

“We are talking about access to credit, not only at affordable rates but also with fewer requirements, because small businesses and some medium-sized businesses do not have access due to the number of requirements that are needed,” Sheinbaum said. “The aim is to make credit easier for small and medium-sized enterprises.”

Article content

Article content

Sheinbaum, Banco de Mexico chief Victoria Rodriguez and Finance Minister Edgar Amador met with the country’s top bankers in the national palace on Tuesday where they also discussed digitalizing payments in the country’s cash-heavy economy, according to people at the meeting who requested anonymity since the talks were private.

Article content

The president asked bankers to ready financing for renewable energy, gas and transmission projects, highway works and train lines that will be detailed next week, the people said.

Article content

Lending in Latin America’s second-biggest economy lags behind peers as a share of output and infrastructure bottlenecks have crimped industrial expansion. 

Article content

Bankers pledged to lift lending by more than 10 percentage points to 50% of economic output by the end of the decade and they also discussed plans to phase in digital-only payments for some services like fuel and toll roads amid plans to cut the use of cash, the people said. 

Article content

Article content

Sheinbaum told reporters the share of loans granted by banks to smaller business had grown by one percentage point and that the government wants to see stronger growth.

Article content

Top executives attending the meet included local chiefs for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Grupo Financiero Banorte, Banco Santander as well as the heads of Citigroup Inc. and its Banamex unit that is now operating separately. 

Article content

Sheinbaum posted photos from the meeting on social media, saying the talks focused on discussing the economic outlook for Mexico, where growth has slowed to a crawl amid the uncertainty of US trade policy. 

Article content

Mexico’s central bank lowered its key rate by a quarter point to 7% last month following a series of cuts aimed at reviving the economy that narrowly avoided recession last year. 

Article content

The central bank said Tuesday in a report it may need to halt easing amid price pressures from new Mexican tariffs on Asian goods. 

Article content

—With assistance from Kelsey Butler.

Article content

(Recasts with comments from president, adds details of meeting with bankers.)

Article content