Economy

This paper estimates the pass-through of monetary policy rates into five lending rates in Mexico using auto regressive distributed lags models (ARDLs) and taking into account several financial market characteristics. Results show that the pass-through of monetary policy into the average short-term lending rate is full and fast, as it takes around 3 months to be fully transmitted. However, the pass-through is heterogeneous across credit markets, being especially weak in the mortgage and automotive credit markets. A higher market concentration in the credit sector is associated with a higher level of the corresponding lending rate. Other financial market characteristics, such as the measure of bank profitability and the ratio of capital to bank assets, are also found to affect the long-run level of one or more lending rates. Higher competition in credit markets and reducing asymmetric information would improve the transmission of monetary policy and contribute to reduce the level of lending rates.

Individuals’ access to finance is particularly low in Mexico. Widening access to finance would boost growth and inclusion. This paper uses microdata from the National Survey for Financial Inclusion to assess the drivers of and the barriers to people’s financial inclusion in Mexico. Results show that working in the formal sector, the level of wealth and income, educational attainment, and age are the socio-economic characteristics that most affect the likelihood of holding any formal financial product. The relative importance of these characteristics, however, varies across financial products. Economic barriers to individuals’ financial inclusion are strongly associated with widespread informality and a low level of education and income. These results suggest that financial education programmes and credit registries considering a wider set of data to assess informal workers' credit worthiness would be promising avenues to help more Mexicans access financial services.

The access to formal financial services in Mexico is particularly low. Access is also significantly unequal across income levels, gender, between rural and urban areas and across regions. SMEs access to bank credit is low, hampering firms’ ability to grow and innovate. The use of cash and informal credit is still widespread, especially in rural areas, where financial infrastructure is underdeveloped. The diffusion of digital financial services is slowly advancing but remains low, hindered by a relatively low level of financial literacy and a digital divide. Expanding access to finance would enable Mexican households to invest in education and health, and better manage income shocks and smooth consumption. It would also enable Mexican firms to invest more, increase productivity and create formal jobs. Low-income households, small firms and more disadvantaged regions would particularly benefit, as it would unlock new economic opportunities for them. Boosting competition in the banking sector would facilitate SMEs access to credit by lowering interest rate margins. Upgrading the regulatory framework of the financial system would help increase competition and quality of financial services. The potential of the fintech sector is yet to be materialised, which would further increase competition and bring financial services to wider segments of the population. Strengthening financial education and digital literacy would facilitate a larger and better use of traditional and digital financial services.

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2020 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on SME access to finance. In particular, the sudden drop in revenues created acute liquidity shortages, threatening the survival of many viable businesses. The report documents an increase in demand for bank lending in the first half of 2020, and a steady supply of credit thanks to government interventions. On the other hand, other sources of finance declined, in particular early-stage equity. This paper, a special edition of Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs, focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on SME access to finance, along with government policy responses. It reveals that the pre-crisis financing environment was broadly favourable for SMEs and entrepreneurs, who benefited from low interest rates, loose credit standards and an increasingly diverse offer of financing instruments. It documents the unprecedented scope and scale of the policy responses undertaken by governments world-wide, and details their key characteristics, and outlines the principal issues and policy challenges for the next phases of the pandemic, such as the over-indebtedness of SMEs and the need to continue to foster a diverse range of financing instruments for SMEs.

The design of intergovernmental fiscal relations can help to ensure that tax and spending powers are assigned in a way to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Decentralisation can enable sub-central governments to provide better public services for households and firms, while it can also make intergovernmental frameworks more complex, harming equity. The challenges of fiscal federalism are multi-faceted and involve difficult trade-offs. This synthesis paper consolidates much of the OECD’s work on fiscal federalism over the past 15 years, with a particular focus on OECD Economic Surveys. The paper identifies a range of good practices on the design of country policies and institutions related strengthening fiscal capacity delineating responsibilities across evels of government and improving intergovernmental co-ordination.

This report assesses the impact on citizens and businesses of the administrative simplification measures carried out by the Mexican Social Security Institute. Administrative burdens are measured in the time it takes citizens and businesses to complete forms and wait in line to request or deliver information to the government. Using an adaptation of the Standard Cost Model, this report finds that such burdens for users have decreased by at least 25% thanks to the simplification and digitalisation of administrative formalities. It also suggests how the Institute could reduce burdens even further. By promoting the use of online formalities, IMSS could reduce administrative burdens by an additional 11%.

Under President Enrique Peña Nieto’s leadership, Mexico has put together the most ambitious reform package of any OECD country in recent times, forged the political consensus necessary to approve it through the unprecedented Pacto por México, promoted these and other reforms in Congress and has started implementing them. The battery of reforms has addressed challenges in policy areas that had been waiting for deep changes for decades, including education, labour, tax, health, telecommunication, and energy and justice, among many others. Mexico still faces important challenges which is why it is crucial for Mexico to continue its reform agenda. It is imperative to strengthen some of the recent reforms, and to keep updating and promoting them to ensure their effective implementation. The OECD stands ready to further accompany Mexico on this path.