1. Federal government announces pension hikes for senior citizens

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced changes to senior citizen pension delivery, which will increase to MXN $6,000 (USD $291.38) by 2024. Additionally, senior citizens will now be eligible for pensions at the age of 65, rather than 68 as was registered previously. The age change will be implemented beginning in July, while pensions will be increased by 15%.
 
Also, the President affirmed that the plan to increase the minimum wage will continue until the population’s purchasing power is recovered.

El Economista: Anuncia López Obrador aumento en la pensión de adultos mayores

2. Electricity Industry Law suspended indefinitely

After the suspensions granted by a justice specializing in Administrative Matters related to economic competition, broadcasting and telecommunications, the Ministry of Energy (SENER) indefinitely suspended the Electricity Industry Law through publication in the Official Gazette.
 
The ministry announced that throughout the validity of this precautionary measure, all the effects and consequences derived from the reform to the law are suspended; therefore, the modified articles are provisionally restored and will not take effect until the sentence is pronounced.

El Financiero: Sener publica la suspensión de la reforma eléctrica de AMLO en el Diario Oficial

3. Mexico left out of Kearney’s FDI Confidence Index for second year in a row

Consulting firm and international specialist Kearney presented the Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index 2021, in which Mexico was, for the second consecutive year, left out of the ranking of top 25 countries that are attractive for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
 
Ricardo Haneine Haua, CEO of Kearney, mentioned that, although initiatives such as the ratification of the T-MEC are positive, they have fallen short of the characteristic’s investors use to qualify Mexico as a main investment target.

Milenio: México vuelve a quedar fuera de ranking de países más atractivos para inversión extranjera

4. INE and Inegi present National Survey on Civic Culture 2020

The National Electoral Institute (INE) and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) presented the National Civic Culture Survey (Encuci) 2020, which mentions that the Army, the Navy and National Guard are the three institutions with the highest levels of trust among the population.
 
According to the report, which seeks to understand citizen involvement in public affairs, 25.9% of the surveyed population indicated that they have a lot of confidence in public universities, 16% in priests, 11.2% in the media and 7.7% in the business sector.

La-Lista: Ejército, Marina y Guardia Nacional, los organismos más confiables para mexicanos: encuesta.
INEGI: Encuesta Nacional de Cultura Cívica (ENCUCI) 2020

5. Inegi reveals macroeconomic data for 2021

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) presented the Global Indicator of Economic Activity (IGAE), which showed a weak start to 2021 with 0.1% monthly growth, the worst such start to a year since 2018. Likewise, according to the National Occupation and Employment Survey, the economically active population fell by 2.4 million people in February 2021. 
 
On the other hand, Inegi reported that the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) showed a variation in inflation of 0.53% and an annual rate of 4.12% during the first half of March, remaining outside Banxico’s target range.

El Economista: Actividad económica tiene arranque débil en el 2021, refleja el IGAE.
El Universal: Inegi: 2.4 millones de personas se mantienen fuera del mercado laboral.
El Economista: Inflación sale del rango de Banxico; se ubicó en 4.12% anual