MEXICO CITY, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's finance ministry on Tuesday announced support for a newly-proposed government economic plan through a 485-billion-peso (25.5-billion-U.S. dollar) fund.
The government unveiled on Monday a strategy to spur economic growth through incentives for infrastructure construction and private-sector consumption.
The scheme, called Actions to Support the Economy, was hailed as "a good measure" to "free up public spending in the second half of the fiscal year to reactivate the investment which drives the country's economic growth," said Jose Manuel Lopez, president of the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Concanaco Servytur), in a statement.
"Within the austerity outlined by the current administration, there must be public spending in the necessary projects," Lopez said.
According to the Concanaco chief, investment has slumped due to uncertainties in the private sector, mainly arising from austerity measures adopted by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration.
Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy, grew two percent in 2018. The Central Bank of Mexico has forecasted a growth of between 0.8 and 1.8 percent for 2019.