It is urgent for Mexico to improve purchasing power: ECLAC

Mexico must reverse casualization of employment and improve the purchasing power of workers, said Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

For this purpose it is necessary to evaluate gradual wage increases accompanied by policies to increase productivity without neglecting inflation levels, Bárcena said in an interview with EL UNIVERSAL.

She added that Mexico could follow the example of Uruguay, a country that implemented salary increases to improve purchasing power, a process that took them five years, and that Brazil did it in eight years.

Bárcena explained that even though jobs have increased in Mexico, salaries are lower, "a situation observed throughout Latin America where some employees now work on their own.

She considered that despite the economic slowdown, this will not increase poverty and unemployment in Mexico this year, as it is foreseen in other nations of the region.

According to Bárcena some of Trump's statements are unlikely to materialize because it is "unthinkable" that Mexican workers return.

She also said that Mexico should not depend as much on the US market, and should turn to Europe, Asia Pacific and the southern hemisphere instead.