If we talk strictly about monetary policies and the most recent decisions of its central banks, what separates Mexico from Argentina is 575 basis points.
The government of the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, decided that the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic yesterday raised its reference interest rate by 600 base points, up to 97 percent.
While in our country, the autonomous Bank of Mexico decided, in its most recent meeting on March 30, to raise its overnight interbank interest rate by 25 basis points to the current 11.25%, with the expectation that the day after tomorrow no longer elevate this monetary reference.
In terms of inflation, the difference between Mexico and Argentina is of this size: general inflation in our country is at a very high and unacceptable level of 6.25% per year last April. While in Argentina inflation registered 8.4% only in April, to give an annual inflation record of 108.8 percent.
There are any number of macroeconomic indicators that can show us the abysmal differences that exist today between the two economies and that place Mexico in a privileged place compared to a country that at the time was considered a nation with the potential to become the first world.
That is why the initial question: What separates us from Argentina? And the answer has to do with their politicians and the way they ruined a powerful, educated nation called to be the financial capital of South America.
Any historical account of another country may be partial and perhaps unfair, but Argentine Justicialism is clearly marked as a cancer that from power devastated the potential of that country.
Populist policies have devastated many nations in the world, the authoritarian dressing has caused human misfortunes the size of Venezuela or Nicaragua, but Argentina, with its more educated and politicized population, entered a spiral of lurches that took away all credibility before the world.
The ease with which populist governments, from the left or the right, have come to power to change the entire legal framework, starting with the Constitution, causes trust to be completely lost.
Investments, which require certainty to wait for the long-term return of their capital, simply do not arrive.
What has been said, the President of Argentina decided for the central bank, while, in Mexico, Banxico decides autonomously. That value of respecting the laws is what makes us different today… still.
What separates us from Argentina? Well, the value and autonomy of the Supreme Court, the decisions of the Bank of Mexico, the rules of the T-MEC, in short.
The reality that, despite the populist stridency, Mexico keeps the door of respect for the law open. But those are not eternal values nor written in stone.
There is a hope as silent as it is widespread that it is possible to correct the course of this country after a six-year break, even under the figure of one of the regime’s favorites.
However, these months are crucial to preserve that viability that makes many hope that Mexico will not have the same misfortune as Argentina of being a rich nation in the permanently wrong hands.
The President of Argentina decided for the central bank, while in Mexico, Banxico decides autonomously. That value of respecting the laws is what makes us different today… still.
