Last January the gross fixed investment made in Mexico contracted 0.5% compared to the level observed in December 2022, according to seasonally adjusted figures published today by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (Inegi).
The decline comes after the strong 2.5% advance seen in December, which had been the largest jump for the indicator since the 3.6% rise seen in July 2021.
Last year fixed investment grew 6% —almost twice as much as the Gross Domestic Product grew— and in 2021 it expanded 10.5%, but before that, in 2020 it contracted a spectacular 17.7% due to the Covid crisis and in fact, his weakness began in 2019when it fell 4.7 percent.
So the indicator —which measures disbursements in physical capital— is still in the process of recovery, which it has not achieved, since only in January it was 7% below its last peak, seen in july 2018.
During the first month of the year, capital expenditures in the construction sector were once again the drag on fixed investment as a whole, since they contracted 0.6 percent. Investment in machinery and equipment, on the other hand, had a slight improvement of 0.1 percent.
Construction costs have been the weakest —and most volatile— pillar in the recovery of fixed investment. In January they were 15.6% lower than the level of their last peak, seen in December 2017. On the contrary, disbursements in machinery and equipment were located just 0.8% below their maximum level, verified in July 2018.
