Weekly Report 83

GENERAL SITUATION IN MEXICO

Weekly Review # 83 I December 1, 2021

2

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY MINIMUM WAGE 2022: COPARMEX PROPOSES AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 30 PESOS The increase should be given based on the component corresponding to inflation in order to maintain its purchasing power, said the business organization.

In order to increase the purchasing power of wages without increasing inflation pressure, the Mexican Confederation of Employers (Coparmex) proposes that the general minimum wage be between 170.04 and 172.87 pesos in 2022, from 141.70 pesos (an increase of 31.17 pesos) currently in the country, except for the northern border-free zone where it is 213.39 pesos.

The proposal of the employers’ union implies an increase of between 7.5 and 8 percent corresponding to the inflationary component and an Independent Recovery Amount (MIR) of between 15.75 and 19.11 pesos, in accordance with the formula used to determine the General Minimum Wage since 2016.

“It seems relevant to us to clarify that, as regards the rest of the wages, the increase should be given only based on the component corresponding to inflation, in order to maintain their purchasing power, but without generating inflationary pressures, that is, a price increase that could damage the economy of workers and their families,” the confederation stated in its position.

Under the “New Wage Culture” proposal, since 2016, Coparmex has sought to improve workers’ income who earn the least initially intending to exceed the individual welfare line defined by CONEVAL. After the salary increases of 2020 and 2021, it already exceeds that individual welfare line by 24 percent, but it is still below the family welfare line that today

represents six thousand 958 pesos per month and that allows a family of four to cover food needs, necessary transportation expenses, personal care, education, clothing and recreation with the perception of two of its members.

Coparmex maintains the expectation of reaching the family welfare line in 2024 at current prices; this would imply a daily value of 228.75 pesos.

“We will certainly take care that these increases are complemented with a rigorous analysis of their impacts and benefits,” he said.

The Independent Recovery Amount (MIR), introduced in the formula to determine the general minimum wage, is the component in a fixed amount complemented with the percentage part according to the movement of inflation in the last year. This tool allows making absolute and not percentage increases to the minimum wage, reducing the possible inflationary effects.

“We are aware of the current government’s willingness to channel the dialogue around this proposal from the business sector, which is in line with the policy of attending to the most vulnerable sectors of the population,” said the organization in its position.

3

GOOD NEWS MEXICO PLANS COVID-19 VACCINE BOOSTER SHOTS SOON, PRESIDENT SAYS.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico plans to administer COVID-19 vaccine booster doses soon, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday.

Asked during a regular news conference whether Mexico would give booster shots to “older” people as the United States began rolling them out for adults, Lopez Obrador said that was part of the country’s plan and would happen soon.

SOURCE: Reuters

4

KEY POINTS OF PRESIDENT ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR’S Morning Press Conference November 24-30, 2021

MINIMUM SALARY The President pointed out that it is false that the minimum wage cannot be increased because inflation would rise. In that sense, he stressed that this led to the minimum wage in Mexico being out of the lowest in the world. He also mentioned that the minimum wage increased by almost 50% in real terms during his administration.

THIRD GOVERNMENT REPORT The President invited the general population to listen on December 1 to the activities and results of his third year of administration.

OMICRON VARIANT The President commented there is a lot of misinformation in this regard and that the population should not be alarmed. He discards the idea of the closure of activities.

VACCINATION PLAN Regarding vaccination against COVID-19, the Undersecretary reported that 132.6 million doses had been applied, so 86% of the eligible population is already vaccinated.

SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxEgOKuI-n-WOJaNcisHvSg

5

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO

BAJA CALIFORNIA The State of Baja California changed to medium-risk or yellow light this week.

Official reports confirm that in the last 24 hours, there was a reduction in COVID-19 cases, reporting 2,880 active cases in the past 14 days. The vaccination plan for adolescents aged 15 to 17 years continues this week with the application of the first dose of Pfizer in Mexicali and Tijuana. And the vaccination plan for the adult population continues this week with the application of the first and second dose of Astra Zeneca in different municipalities.

SONORA The State of Sonora is considered a low-risk or green light. There was a 50 percent increase in COVID-19 cases during the last two weeks, registering 384 new cases in the last 24 hours. The vaccination plan for adolescents aged 15 to 17 years continues this week. The secretary of health of Sonora reported a massive vaccination campaign for the adult population in the first week of December in different municipalities.

6

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO

COAHUILA The Secretary of Health in Coahuila said that the entity remains on the lookout for the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron. He indicated that they still need to have more information on the variant, but in the face of a more contagious virus, they do not rule out resuming containment measures that occurred during the first year of the pandemic.

TAMAULIPAS A total of 12 thousand teenagers aged 15, 16, and 17 received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine during this week in the municipalities of Victoria, Altamira, Madero, and Tampico, Tamaulipas.

The government expressed that in total, there are 188,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 17 in Tamaulipas, and it is one of the first states where this age group is vaccinated.

NUEVO LEON The state Health Secretariat reported this Tuesday that it will implement a sanitary fence at the Mariano Escobedo International Airport in order to prevent the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, from reaching Nuevo Leon.

7

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO

QUERETARO COVID-19’s Technical Attention Committee unanimously approved a new adjustment to the opening of economic activities, increasing capacity and relaxing restrictions. The new provisions will be in effect for two weeks and will take effect from the date of their publication in the official state newspaper La Sombra de Arteaga until Monday, December 13. The committee’s determination was based on the behavior of the disease in recent weeks, characterized by stable positivity, low hospital occupancy, a reduction in active cases, and an increase in mobility due to festivities such as the Day of the Dead.

JALISCO With Data until November 29, The Ministry of Health of Jalisco registered 122 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 396,460 throughout the state, and reported three deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 17,387. Adding the negative results reported by all laboratories, 1,556,580 cases have been ruled out in Jalisco to date, and 24,610 cases are suspected.

8

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO

AGUASCALIENTES In Aguascalientes, in this school year, there is no record of COVID-19 infection in private schools. There have been successful on-site classes because the filters have been very rigorous to avoid an epidemic within the institutions themselves. Therefore 900 teachers have been trained, according to Hector Javier Sanchez Espinosa, President of the Association of Private Schools. “We do not have 100% of the student body, for those who are still afraid, we are giving them the opportunity to study online, according to the survey there are 10% of students online.”

GUANAJUATO Approximately 5 million 731,806 vaccines have been administered in Guanajuato, of which more than 2.5 million belong to complete vaccination schedules, according to the State Secretary of Health, Daniel Diaz Martinez. In an interview, he pointed out that they are waiting for the Federal Government for the arrival of second doses from AstraZeneca for the 18 to 29 years old population group. They also expect a new batch of Sputnik brand vaccines for the young people of Leon next week since this has been the period indicated to be applied.

9

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO

STATE OF MEXICO The Secretary of Health, Francisco Fernandez Clamont, warned that the holidays in December could cause a new increase of COVID-19 cases in the state due to the mobility, the excessive confidence of those who are vaccinated and the relaxation of sanitary measures, as well as the presence of new variants of the virus. The official underlined that at the moment the State of Mexico is stable, with a positivity of 3 percent of cases, but this condition could change at any moment due to many factors. During a visit to the Congress of the State of Mexico, the official insisted on the need to continue with the use of facemasks, not to go to crowed meetings and continue with social distancing.

CDMX Neither in the country nor in Mexico City (CDMX) has the Omicron variant of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) been detected, said the capital’s Secretary of Health, Oliva Lopez, and added that it is not ruled out that it could arrive.

She also mentioned that right now in Mexico the predominant variant is Delta, however, Omicron variant is still under study and mentioned that Mexico City is stable regarding contagions, but that could change as well. On the other hand, she informed that, so far, the National Vaccination Plan does not contemplate any booster dose, nor does it propose a third dose against COVID-19.

10

ECONOMIC GROWTH IN MEXICO AMLO INSISTS: MEXICO’S ECONOMY WILL GROW 6%, WITH EVERYTHING AND ‘SCARE’ OF THE THIRD QUARTER The president stressed that his forecast is based on progress in the creation of formal employment and the arrival of foreign investment.

Mexico’s economy will grow 6 percent with everything, and the confirmed fall that occurred in the third quarter insisted on Thursday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

“The economy is growing, and the forecast that we are going to grow 6 percent this year will be fulfilled, and it was a ‘V’ (the graph representing the rise), and there are several indicators,” he stressed in his conference from Zacatecas.

As an example, the president cited the creation of formal employment that, he said, already registered a record high in November.

According to the figures shown by the head of the Executive, in the eleventh month of the year, 144 thousand jobs were added, bringing the total to 20.9 million, a figure never seen in the records of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS).

“I think the best is the creation of formal jobs, and another indicator that helps a lot to know what is happening in terms of economic growth is foreign investment, the arrival of foreign investment,” he added.

And on this factor, the flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) accelerated their restoration towards the end of the year. However, there are signs of deterioration within a couple of industrial sectors.

SOURCE: El Financiero

According to preliminary data published by the Ministry of Economy, Mexico captured 24,831 million dollars (mdd) of FDI during the period JanuarySeptember 2021.

The amount represents an annual advance of 5.7 percent -with respect to preliminary figures-. Despite its escalation, it is still lower than the figure recorded for the first three quarters of 2019 ($ 26.1 billion).

11

TOWARDS THE “NEW NORMAL”

DISTRIBUTION OF DEATHS PER STATE DUE TO THE PANDEMIC

INFORMATION UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 29, 2021 AT 19:00 HRS LOCAL TIME.

NEW CASES REPORTED: 724

SOURCE: https://www.gob.mx/salud/

CONFIRMED CASES: 3, 884,566

NEW DEATHS REPORTED: 53

CONFIRMED DEATHS: 293,950

12

INCREASE OF CONFIRMED CASES SINCE THE FIRST REPORT MAP WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE INCIDENCE RATE OF ACCUMULATED CASES OF COVID-19 BY ENTITY OF RESIDENCE.

National rate 15.44

0 to 10.0 (18 states)

40.1 to 50 (1 states)

10.1 to 20 (6 states)

50.1 to 60 (1 states)

20.1 to 30 (2 states)

60.1 to 70 (0 states)

30.1 to 40 (3 states)

>70 (1 states)

Elaborated by Prodensa with information from the Health Ministry of Mexico

PANDEMIC’S SITUATION IN THE WORLD • As of November 29, 2021, globally there have been reported 260,867,011 confirmed cases (373,438 new cases) of COVID-19 and 5,200,267 deaths (4,913 new deaths*). Lethal rate: 2%. In the last 14 days, 7,548,815 cases were reported globally.

SOURCE: https://www.gob.mx/salud/

13

TOWARDS THE “NEW NORMAL” INCIDENTS OF CONTAGIONS IN THE POPULATION

BY REGION AS OF NOVEMBER 29

DEATH INCIDENTS IN POPULATION

BY REGION AS OF NOVEMBER 29

SOURCE: https://www.gob.mx/salud/

EHS

LABOR

14

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT VACCINE BREAKTHROUGH INFECTIONS • Vaccine breakthrough infections are expected. COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing most infections. However, like other vaccines, they are not 100% effective.

• Fully vaccinated people with a vaccine breakthrough infection are less likely to develop serious illness than those who are unvaccinated and get COVID-19.

• Even when fully vaccinated people develop symptoms, they tend to be less severe symptoms than unvaccinated people. This means they are much less likely to be hospitalized or die than people who are not vaccinated.

• People who get vaccine breakthrough infections can be contagious.

DAVID ANTUNEZ Environmental, Health, and Safety Director.

INTEGRAL INCLUSION In October, the Labor and Social Welfare Commission of the Senate of the Republic approved a draft bill that amends and adds various provisions of the Federal Labor Law (LFT) regarding the labor rights of persons with disabilities. If the entire legislative process moves forward, this reform will oblige employers with twenty or more workers to ensure that at least five percent of their total workforce are persons with disabilities.

Legislators in the lower chamber have presented similar initiatives, both to reform the General Law for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in order to promote their right to decent work and employment, as well as to improve the LFT, to establish fees for companies to hire a mandatory minimum number of persons with disabilities, as already approved in commissions in the Senate.

Beyond the issue of fees, company executives, especially those in the personnel areas, must recognize the importance of having internal policies that allow organizations to provide opportunities to as many people with disabilities as possible. In doing so, they grow in talent and grow in corporate reputation.

Contact us for detailed information; we are ready to support you.

ALVARO GARCIA HR, Vice President

www.prodensa.com contact@prodensa.com