Mexico’s central bank on Monday announced a financial stability plan including an increase in its foreign debt of up to US$5 billion, a statement said.
Mexico “will increase the financing planned originally for 2008 and 2009 with international financial organisms like the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank up to a sum of US$5 billion,” the statement said.
The plan was necessary because of “significant movements of the exchange rate, the index of the Mexican stock exchange and domestic and external interest rates,” the statement said.
The bank said it would lay down “a series of actions directed at relieving liquidity problems,” along with the government, including a reduction in the sales of fixed-rate, long-term peso bonds and treasury certificates.
SUPPORTING THE PESO
Mexico has sold off more than US$15 billion since Oct. 8 in bid to support the peso, which recently hit a series of record lows.
The central bank sold off another US$400 million on Monday. The peso changed hands at 13.30 pesos to the dollar in late trading, up from 13.62 pesos on Friday. After hovering below 11 pesos to the dollar for the past year, the peso began to depreciate significantly on Sept. 29.
PLUMMETING STOCKS
The Mexico stock exchange, or Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV), dropped 16.41 percent last week, or 3,333.99 points.
The BMV closed down 0.65 percent, or 110.18 points, at 16,868.66 points on Monday.
Mexico, Latin America’s second biggest economy, depends on the US for 80 percent of its exports and most of its remittances, its second-largest source of foreign income after oil exports.
The central bank said on Monday it had paid off US$8 billion in foreign debt in the last two years. Mexico has around US$40 billion in foreign debt, the central bank says.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)