By Carola Rico
In our section titled Economic Perspectives 2022, we always find interesting points of view from San Miguel businessmen. They share with us how they have experienced and dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cristian Gutiérrez Sierra is an entrepreneur and President of the College of Professionals of San Miguel. He recalls the arrival of the Coronavirus in Mexico in 2020, and how that time marked the beginning of the economic decline. He pointed out that everywhere the decline was primarily reflected in the gross domestic product (GDP); the effect in Mexico was no exception. He explained that the effect on the GDP was major for first world countries, and emerging countries like Mexico were clearly affected as well. The way this was reflected in the economies was inflation, especially in times of acute pandemic. We still do not know when the pandemic will end completely and now we have an intermittent pandemic. He said that specialists claim that if 70 percent of the population is vaccinated, the pandemic could end in mid-2022.
An analysis of the situation, led experts to expect that economic problems due to the pandemic would be reflected in inflation. Mexico is not unique, the economies all over the world are showing inflation. In Mexico, however, moderate inflation has already gone to high inflation. There is a network of global economies and if a country that has a treaty with Mexico, recovers, then Mexico will experience an economic recovery. But it that country, or countries do not recover, then neither will Mexico because we are all intertwined.
He also explained that the situation is progressing slowly, and the belief is that at the end of 2022 inflation will end. However, salaries during this period have remained fixed because of the same economic crisis, and although interest rates rose, they did not keep up with inflation.
The way to reactivate the economy, he said, is by generating new businesses, and new forms of payment so that people can buy on credit but with low rates; but he does not believe that this will happen.
He added that unemployment continues to rise because they continue to lay off people, hanging on to as few employees as possible. On the other hand, he said that businesses in San Miguel want to hire, but sadly no one comes to fill the vacancies. In conclusion, Cristian Gutiérrez pointed out: “My economic prospects for 2022 are high inflation, low interest rates, low gross domestic product, and economic growth lower than 2020, the year the pandemic began.”
Ana Luisa Castañeda (on the featured image) is a businesswoman in the Healthy Living sector. She has been the manager of a spa for 25 years in San Miguel. “At the beginning of the pandemic when we closed, we all put up with it and we were very scared because for us it was a lot of contact with the client. When we started little by little, we did it with fear, doing our work as hygienically as possible, with all the sanitization measures; changing sheets, towels and constantly cleaning the spaces.
“Currently it is not the same influx of clients as before. With the seasons for example, December and Easter we all had a lot of work, now it has gone down of course, but we are stable. On the other hand, people are also stressed, they are already tired and sometimes a massage is needed to relax and cuddle. People are very much looking for well-being, now they want to go out into nature and open spaces, so other doors have opened to all of us who are dedicated to wellness.
“People now want to heal in a different way, they want to take care of their diet, they want to take care of their body, so those of us who work on this only feel it more. When the level of Covid rises, everyone gets scared and they don’t leave their homes; but when it goes down people become confident again and begin to use our services. We also know that this is temporary, we hope that this year will pass soon and that by 2023 we will be much better.”
