In an interview with El Financiero/Bloomberg Carstens was asked
whether the chances of Trump, a persistent critic of the North
American Free Trade Agreement, becoming the next president of the
United States was in the central bank's risk models.
"Well, explicitly, no," Carstens said. "But implicitly all of us
have it in our heads, this possibility."
Carstens was also asked about Mexican monetary policy in the coming
months after the bank launched a surprise rate hike on Feb. 17 to
shore up the peso currency, which had been falling sharply against
the dollar since the end of 2014.
He reiterated that the February move was not the start of a monetary
policy tightening cycle, but that the bank would be following moves
by the U.S. Federal Reserve closely.
"Our monetary policy will above all be led by ... the exchange rate,
the monetary policy relative to the United States and the
inflationary pressures that could occur due to the economic cycle in
Mexico," the central bank governor said.
Trump, front-runner to win the Republican presidential nomination
for the Nov. 8 election, sparked outrage in Mexico with campaign
vows to slap tariffs on Mexican exports and to build a southern
border wall and make Mexico pay for it.
[to top of second column] |
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said this month his country
would not pay for Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico
border, and likened his "strident tone" to the ascent of dictators
like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Dave Graham; Editing by
Richard Chang and Sam Holmes)
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