CATEGORY: OBG CEO Surveys
In a global political economy characterised largely by trade wars, polarised politics and economic populism, Mexico – despite being substantially affected by all three of these – has managed to remain impressively resilient in the face of what the IMF refers to “as an environment of elevated external and domestic risks”. Externally, the sluggish global economy and the trade war between the US and China coincided with instances throughout 2019 of US President Donald Trump using Twitter to be highly critical of Mexico’s internal and foreign policy. Looking at domestic political issues, at 60% the consistently resilient approval ratings of president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, are in contrast to the heightened uncertainty with which the business community views his policies.
With GDP expansion forecast at 7.5% in 2019, and monetary and fiscal restructuring under way, the Ghanaian authorities are pushing ahead with a number of programmes to boost the performance of key sectors and promote diversification. The business community, in turn, remains largely optimistic about near-term prospects. In the third Ghana CEO Survey, 71% of participants have positive or very positive expectations of local business conditions in the coming 12 months, though many also underscore the pressing challenges still to be addressed, including the infrastructure deficit and access to credit.