Violence Cost Mexico 18% of Its GDP Last Year, Mexican Institute Report Says Agencia EFE
go to original April 4, 2017

Criminal violence in Mexico is rising after a three-year decline, reaching levels not seen since 2011, when the country’s murderous war between drug cartels was at its worst. (Press TV)

Violence cost Mexico the equivalent of 18 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016, a year when the homicide rate rose, the 2017 Mexico Peace Index report said Tuesday.

The cost of the violence amounted to 25,000 pesos ($1,335) per person last year, Mexican Institute for the Economy and Peace coordinator Patricia de Obeso told EFE.

The violence is "a tax on the country's security" that all citizens pay and that comes to more than a month of pay for the average Mexican worker, De Obeso said.

The cost is even higher in states like Colima, where it came to 66,500 pesos ($3,555) and Guerrero, where it totaled 53,600 pesos ($2,865) per capita, the researcher said.

The reports author's factored direct costs, such as government spending on the armed forces and business spending on security, and indirect costs, including the effect of crime on public perceptions and the loss of a breadwinner for a family.

Society must decide "if the investment we've made in the past 10 years in directly fighting drug trafficking ... in containing violence, has really had an impact" or whether citizens must ask themselves "what we should be investing in to improve the level of peace," De Obeso said.

Social peace, according to the institute, fell 4.3 percent in 2016 and had been flat in the two prior years, with no progress or reverses.

Read the rest at Fox News

Related: With Murders on the Rise, 2017 on Track to Be One of Mexico's Deadliest Years (NPR.org)

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