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Weekly Report - 14 September 2017 (WR-17-36)

TRACKING TRENDS

MEXICO | Economic relief for Oaxaca and Chiapas. President Enrique Peña Nieto announced on 11 September that his government would implement a series of economic relief measures designed to help the communities in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas that were most severely affected by the major earthquake (8.2 on the Richter scale) registered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of these states on 7 September.
     Peña Nieto, who was visiting Chiapas to oversee the relief efforts, said that the government would launch a temporary work programme to benefit the thousands of people (2.3m according to the latest official estimates) who lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of the earthquake. This will also support reconstruction efforts. Peña Nieto explained that members of the affected communities would be given material and financial support to help clear the rubble and rebuild their homes (some 16,000 of which are estimated to have been destroyed in Oaxaca and Chiapas) and public buildings damaged by the earthquake.
      Peña Nieto also called on experienced construction companies to come forward and offer their services to the reconstruction efforts. Meanwhile, Finance Minister José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, who was accompanying Peña Nieto, announced the immediate application of temporary tax relief measures for all individuals and firms in Chiapas and Oaxaca affected by the earthquake, such as the waiving of income tax, value-added tax (VAT), and social security tax collection.
     Meade said that these measures would not impact government finances this year as they represent projected revenues that would not be realised now. He also insisted that the federal government has sufficient emergency relief finances in its natural disaster fund (Foden) to fund relief efforts in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and other parts of the country impacted by the quake. However, Meade did not rule out amending the government’s draft 2018 budget, which is currently being debated by the federal congress, to increase the allocation of funds to the relief and reconstruction efforts if necessary.

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