LatinNews Daily - 15 August 2023

*Mexico’s former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard (2018-2023), a presidential pre-candidate for the ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), has unveiled various objectives of his economic plan. Speaking at an event held in a mattress factory in Iztapalapa, a borough in Mexico City (CDMX), Ebrard said that his plan sought to grow Mexico’s economy by 5% and aimed to create a further 6m new jobs as well as doubling salaries – which he said was crucial to the key objective of growing the country’s middle class so that most of the population were in the middle-income bracket. Among other things he highlighted plans to continue attracting the “world’s best companies to Mexico”, in part to take advantage of ‘nearshoring’ - the relocation of global production and supply chains to destinations closer to the US. He also highlighted plans to invest in the country’s infrastructure, develop an electromobility network, create a new national water strategy, expand clean energy, and invest in technology, all of which he said was key to economic growth.