“About 50% of the population has received at least one dose (of the vaccine). Although there is also a lot of variation between countries, some have levels of almost 75%, such as Chile and Ecuador. Others less than 20%, ”Maloney warned.
To speed up the economic recovery in Mexico, it is necessary, in addition to accelerating the vaccination process, new outbreaks of COVID-19 must be contained.
In addition, he stressed, the country could take advantage of fiscal prudence that was held last year, which gives some space to deal with some problems. He noted that the reduction of uncertainty for him private sector it would help in the recovery task.
The regional director warned that Reforms are urgently needed in the areas of infrastructure, education, health, energy policy and innovation to boost growth in Latin America and the Caribbean to avoid losing another decade.
The perspective of growth for this year for the region is 6.3%, which is not enough to reverse the drop of 6.7% that occurred in 2020. While for 2022 and 2023 growth of 2.8% and 2.6%, respectively, is expected, “which is insufficient to reactivate economies and reduce poverty” Maloney pointed out, noting that these growth rates are not higher than what was grown in the past decade.
For Mexico, said William Maloney, a 5.8% growth, also below last year’s 8.3% drop; growth of 3% is expected for 2022 and 2.2% for 2023.
Efficiency in the use of public resources
“Given the imperative to drive more dynamic, inclusive and green growth within a context of scarce resources, governments will have to rethink the best and most efficient way to use public resources,” Maloney asked.
By increasing transparency and accountability in the public sector, and leveraging the discipline of the private sector, the report calls for promoting sustainable and equitable growth in three broad areas:
Rethinking public spending priorities: By approaching global levels of efficiency and setting new priorities for spending, health systems can make quick gains that would lengthen average life expectancy by four years. Education can be improved by focusing on the most affected schools, with better use of technologies and promoting short tertiary careers capable of better aligning available skills with the needs of the industry.
More efficient spending: In contracting alone, it is estimated that the use of best practices aimed at reducing corruption, inefficiency and increasing the competitiveness of tenders could result in a saving of 22% of spending without changes in current public procurement laws.
Boost revenue: there is room to increase taxes without significantly affecting growth. Areas to explore include expanding taxes on property and to a lesser extent on personal income, raising taxes on unhealthy food and carbon emissions, and improving collection capacity in a region where the level of tax evasion Corporate income tax is practically 50%.
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