As part of state-sponsored measures for mitigating the economic impact of COVID-19, Mexico will reduce salaries and cut bonuses of high-ranking government officials, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday
MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) As part of state-sponsored measures for mitigating the economic impact of COVID-19, Mexico will reduce salaries and cut bonuses of high-ranking government officials, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday.
"We have reached a consensus to reduce salaries and cancel annual bonuses of all senior officials beginning from the positions of deputy directors and finishing with the republic's president," Obrador said on Twitter.
The Mexican president did not specify how long the cuts were going to remain in effect. He said, however, that the COVID-19 crisis and the derailed oil market were not going to change the country's development agenda aimed at supporting the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population.
The Mexican government expects its programs for social welfare and development to reach 22 million people in 2020. Such measures have already included an early payment�of four months worth of retirement benefits, disability benefits and student stipends. The government has also decided not to raise prices on gas and prohibited any new taxes or a raise of old ones.
To ease the pressure on individuals and small-sized businesses in light of the economy's bigger part being currently paralyzed, the government is going to facilitate loans for them. Some 2 million new jobs were promised to people by the end of the year, even though the Mexican Finance Ministry has forecast the GDP to shrink up to 3.9 percent due to disrupted supply chains and oil market collapse amid the pandemic.�
