Mexico could restore jobs lost during the pandemic in the first quarter of 2021, the president says.

MEXICO CITY, October 23 (Xinhua). Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that the country could restore jobs lost to the novel coronavirus in the first quarter of 2021 through loans granted to small businesses by its government.

The president said at a press conference that Mexico had lost around one million jobs since April due to the pandemic, but employment had gradually increased since August.

“It has helped us a lot to provide credit to small businesses, many of which commercial banks have not lent many or on favorable terms,” ​​he added.

According to the president, his administration has provided more than two million loans to small businesses in both the formal and informal sectors to help small businesses retain their employees.

The challenge for the future is to strike a balance “between health and economy” in light of the signs of a new virus outbreak in some regions of the country.

The unemployment rate in Mexico fell to 5.1 percent in the economically active population in September, from 5.2 percent in August, according to official figures.

Mexico, the second largest economy in Latin America after Brazil, began on June 1 to gradually reactivate some economic sectors that had been closed since the end of March in order to prevent the virus from spreading.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the Mexican economy could see a 9 percent decline in 2020 due to COVID-19. End item.

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