Mexican Assets Tank as Lopez Obrador Cancels Planned Airport

  • Lopez Obrador announced intention to cancel the project
  • Mexican peso, airport and government bonds fell after decision

Construction at the New International Airport of Mexico City (NAICM) in Texcoco, Mexico, on April 13. 

Photographer: Brett Gundlock/Bloomberg
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Mexico’s peso and 10-year dollar sovereign bonds fell to four-month lows after incoming president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador canceled a $13 billion airport project for the capital, even though a third of it had already been built. The country’s stocks also declined, hitting their lowest point since February 2016.

AMLO, as the president-elect is known, ditched the project after almost 70 percent of 1.07 million people who participated in a national referendum voted against the airport, among the nation’s biggest infrastructure projects.