Mexico’s reaction to the pandemic follows path of austerity


While the rates of poverty and extreme poverty in Mexico are on the rise due to the pandemic’s side effects, the Mexican “government has chosen to take a path of minimal action”, Ricardo Velázquez Leyer writes in his report. “Apart from healthcare, few new specific measures have been introduced.” Instead, the government decided to rely on social policy programmes it had created back in 2019 although it remains to be seen if these programmes represent cases of welfare expansion or retrenchment compared to the previous situation.

Leyer’s conclusion is bleak: “If the path of minimal action is not rectified, grim social, economic and political consequences await Mexican society in the foreseeable future.”

Read Ricardo Velázquez Leyer’s full report: Mexico’s Social Policy Response to Covid-19: A Path of Minimal Action


See the other parts of the series: CRC 1342 Covid-19 Social Policy Response Series

28.01.2021

Poverty rates have risen in Mexico during the pandemic (Photo: kovop58, Adobe Stock).
Poverty rates have risen in Mexico during the pandemic (Photo: kovop58, Adobe Stock).