Mexico's finance minister Luis Videgaray is stepping down, local radio said today, a move that follows disappointing economic growth and scandals plaguing President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Radio Formula said finance ministry spokeswoman Claudia Algorri confirmed that Videgaray, a close confidant of Pena Nieto, offered his resignation and that the president accepted it after nearly four years on the job.
Pena Nieto scheduled a televised statement from his official residence for 1600 GMT. His office did not give further details.
A replacement was not immediately named.
Videgaray coordinated Pena Nieto's presidential campaign and has been known as one of his key advisers over the years.
But the economy has not performed as well as hoped, shrinking by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter, while the peso has dropped against the dollar.
Lackluster economic growth has not been the only problem dogging Videgaray.
The Washington Post, citing Mexicans familiar with the deliberations, reported last week that Videgaray was a leading advocate for Pena Nieto's controversial meeting with US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
An economist who earned a doctorate from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Videgaray saw the meeting as a political risk that was worth taking, in case Trump was elected, the Post said.
Videgaray was the behind-the-scenes liaison to the Trump campaign.
Trump's visit to Pena Nieto's residence in Mexico City on August 31 backfired on the president, with Mexicans voicing outrage that a US politician who has branded Mexican migrants as "rapists" would get such a prestigious invitation.
More than 88 percent of Mexicans expressed displeasure at Trump's visit, according to a survey by the Mitofsky polling firm.
Trump said at a press conference after the meeting that his demand that Mexico pay for a wall along the border had not been discussed.
Pena Nieto, who was criticized for not challenging Trump at the joint press conference, later said that he had told the Republican candidate that his government would not pay for a wall.
But the president told Milenio television this week that he took the decision to invite Trump, and that "nobody recommended it to me."
Videgaray was also ensnared in a scandal over his purchase of a home from a government contractor.
That same contractor had sold a mansion to Pena Nieto's wife, former soap opera star Angelica Rivera, raising questions of conflicts of interest.
An investigation led by the minister for public administration cleared Videgaray and Pena Nieto of wrongdoing last year, but critics questioned the probe as it was conducted by someone picked by the president.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
