Mexico City. Two unavoidable commitments of the federal government, the payment of pensions and the payment of interest on public debt, consumed just over a quarter of the expenditure incurred by the public sector in the first seven months of this year, according to information from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).
Between January and July, spending on pension payments, as well as commissions and interest on public debt, totaled 1 trillion 483 thousand 153.1 million pesos. This amount represented 27.8 percent, more than a quarter of public sector spending in the period, which was 5 trillion 334 thousand 229.5 million, according to data from the SHCP’s Report on the Economic Situation, Public Finances and Public Debt, updated this weekend.
In the first seven months of 2024, spending on pensions and retirements was 819 thousand 86.4 million pesos, which represented 15.3 percent of total spending and a real growth of 4.8 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
In comparison, pension spending was 2.9 times higher than the government’s spending on education (273,413 million pesos) and 24.5 times higher than the government’s spending on health, to which the government allocated 33,348.7 million pesos, which meant a real annual decrease of 54.2 percent.
In turn, pension expenditure grew 4.8 percent in real terms in the first seven months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, when it was 745,799 million pesos.
The financial cost of public sector debt amounted to 664,066.7 million pesos from January to July, which represented 12.4 percent of total spending and an annual real increase of 4.1 percent.
Interest, commissions and expenses account for 90.5 percent of the cost of the debt, which amounted to 601,577.3 million pesos, that is, an annual real growth of 3.5 percent. Of this total, 83.5 percent corresponded to the federal government (502,372.5 million pesos) and 16.4 percent to the parastatal sector (99,204.7 million pesos).
The cost of the debt of 664 thousand 66.7 million pesos represented 99.6 percent of the disbursement that the public sector made in direct and indirect physical investment, which was 661 thousand 746.1 million pesos, which includes the expenditure of autonomous entities, agencies, direct budget control bodies and state-owned productive companies.
It also includes federal contributions for states and municipalities and transfers granted to entities under indirect budgetary control for the payment of personal services.
SHCP data show that net spending paid by the public sector registered a real increase of 10.8 percent in July compared to the same period in 2023.
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– 2024-09-09 13:40:03
