Your Mexico trip is more costly: US dollar continues losing purchasing power vs peso

The Mexican peso continues to break records, appreciating its strongest level against the dollar in almost nine years at 16.44.

“The U.S. currency has lost value against all other currencies because there’s a lot of dollars in circulation,” Jorge Fonseca, an economist in Tijuana, told NBC 7’s sister station Telemundo 20.

However, these fluctuations generated by the “super peso” have also had negative impacts on the binational economy.

“This is like a pendulum, if you go a lot to one side upwards, you go back a lot, but that’s going to be corrected. How long? We don’t know that. Because it’s no longer responding to supply and demand. We are seeing a very strong growth in the trade deficit of Mexico and the United States. We are importing much more than we are exporting, we are seeing that tourists are having difficulties visiting our country.”

Funds sent from the United States to Mexico no longer yield the same return as they did when the dollar was at the average 18 pesos per unit. By having an overvalued peso between 15% and 20%, according to the economist, the purchasing power of tourists on the other side of the border has also decreased.

Merchants like Héctor Santillan, who has been selling handicrafts on Tijuana’s Revolución Avenue for decades, have felt the impact.

“Those of us who handle a lot of dollars or those of us who have dollars complain because our dollars are being decapitalized on the one hand and on the other hand the product is becoming more expensive,” he said.

And it is that there are already months that have had a downward trend, with tourism in dribs and drabs, even in high season.

“Since September of last year, the phenomenon of the economy in the United States has slowed down, but the medical cluster has helped us a little, but outside of there there is no tourism that comes free,” added Héctor Santillán, a tourism merchant.  According to representatives of the tourism sector here in the city of Tijuana, they are seeking approaches with authorities on the other side of the border, in order to continue with this tourism promotion a little less affected.