As he nears the end of his presidency , it is becoming possible to judge the effects of his early peso-pinching and the freer spending that followed., as he is often known, can boast that inflation is relatively low, which is good for the poor; the currency is strong; and interest rates have risen by less than they might have done.
This aversion to extravagance is in part a reaction to a debt crisis in 1982, when bondholders bossed the government around and the economy began a decade of slow growth. His extension of frugality to the public sphere is “popular with citizens because the government has long been seen as the enemy”, says Paula Villaseñor ofWhat civil servants can spend on such things as phone calls, petrol, seminars and colour-printing has been capped.
Seeking to make Mexico self-sufficient in energy, Mr López Obrador has directed 42% of the public-investment budget this year to Pemex and, the inefficient and highly indebted state oil and electricity companies. The state’s implicit guarantee of Pemex’s debt was one reason given by Moody’s, a credit-rating agency, when, despiteMr López Obrador has used his odd mix of largesse and miserliness to strengthen institutions he likes while weakening ones he doesn’t.