BlackRock to co-host investor event with Mexico

BlackRock

is working to choose a date to co-host an investor summit with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ’s administration, Chief Executive Larry Fink wrote in a letter made public by the government on Thursday .

BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest asset manager, is partnering with Mexico as the country installs internet nationwide and develops the southern isthmus, Fink wrote in the letter to the president.

López Obrador told a news conference on Thursday that BlackRock’s letter, dated April 18, expressed “confidence in the country.”

Despite vows to boost both private and public investment, López Obrador’s economic decision-making has rattled investors. In particular, his cancellation of a partly built $13 billion Mexico City airport in October , a few weeks before taking office, sparked billions of dollars of losses on Mexican financial markets.

The leftist leader has called for installing a fiber-optic cable throughout areas with poor connectivity, as well as free internet in public places. He has also proposed infrastructure projects in the long-neglected southern region, including a train linking the Pacific Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico across the isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Private sector analysts have been cutting their Mexican growth forecasts for 2019.

Fink said BlackRock was “firmly committed” to Mexico. The asset manager has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to invest Mexico, including a focus on infrastructure.

OECD cuts Mexico growth forecast to 1.6%

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