The Mexican peso has bounced by around 5% from record lows against the US dollar in the past few days. But it has still lost 12% in a year, and the respite looks unlikely to last long, says Roger Blitz in the FT.
The dollar’s ascent has been tempered by the prospect of Trump’s fiscal stimulus being watered down in Congress. But he is still evidently determined to slap tariffs on Mexican imports, and there are other problems pointing to a lower peso.
Mexico is suffering from rising inflation, a large current account deficit and lacklustre growth. The latter could trigger a credit-rating downgrade.
Viewpoint
“By 2020, small firms turning over as little as £10,000 a year will have to file [their tax returns] online every three months, with some due to begin in April 2018. The Treasury Committee can’t see why companies earning less than the VAT threshold of £83,000 need to be captured by the new system initially… The switch to digital makes sense but, as currently proposed, all the risk and extra cost is piled onto entrepreneurs while the reward is reaped by HMRC, which believes the Making Tax Digital initiative will bring in extra receipts of £625m. How much more might it earn if the tycoons of tomorrow were not put off from setting up shop?”
James Ashton, Evening Standard