Economy Of Mexico Ranked 6th In '2022's Unlikely Winners' By The Economist

According to a list of "2022's Unlikely Winners" compiled by the British magazine The Economist, Mexico's economy had an unexpectedly robust year in 2022, placing sixth out of 34 countries studied, Mexico News Daily reported.

The magazine gave each nation a score and rated the countries based on five economic and financial indicators: GDP growth, inflation, inflation breadth (the proportion of inflation basket items whose price has increased by more than 2% in a year), stock market performance, and government debt. Only Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Israel, and Spain were able to defeat Mexico.

Mexico's impressive performance was mainly ascribed to its GDP growth, which was the fourth highest on the list between Q4 2021 and Q3 2022 at 3.3%. Despite having a high rate of inflation (6.8% growth in consumer prices and an 82.4% breadth), the country was still ranked favorably to many other ones. Mexico’s average share price dropped by 0.9%, while its share of debt to GDP fell by 0.7%.

Overall, the magazine emphasized how some previously underperforming nations, like those in the Mediterranean, had demonstrated extreme resilience in the face of geopolitical unpredictability and global supply shocks.

At his press conference on Wednesday, Dec. 28, President López Obrador emphasized the outcome and boasted that Mexico had outperformed countries like Canada, Japan, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Britain, and even the United States.

On social media, AMLO and his followers seized the chance to criticize The Economist for prior criticism of the president, including a cover article from May 2021 that referred to AMLO as a "false messiah" who "pursues ruinous policies by improper means."

“[And now] we are in sixth place in the world in economic performance,” the president said, emphasizing that The Economist “is not sympathetic to us.”

The Economist's list only includes 34 of the 38 nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as fact-checkers have clearly pointed out.

Additionally, there is no assurance that Mexico will continue to perform well. According to the latest data from the national statistics agency (INEGI), Mexico's economic development slowed down near the end of 2022. The Bank of Mexico now expects 2.9% growth for the entire year. In 2023, growth forecasts have been repeatedly revised downward, with one recent research predicting 1.1% growth.