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The number of millionaires has increased dramatically in Mexico during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, according to official figures from local media.
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La Jornada reported Thursday that at least 8,885 individuals have bank accounts with more than US$30 million, joining a rising class that has prospered under the Peña Nieto government.
When Peña Nieto began his tenure in 2013, there were 14,486 of these millionaires. During the first three years of his administration, the figure has increased by 67 percent to nearly 24,000 individuals.
During the past three years, Mexico’s economy has been affected by the international financial volatility that has led to the depreciation of the peso to a record low against the U.S. dollar.
However, despite the bad times for many Mexicans, the slump does not seem to have affected the interests of this new class of millionaires. The country's richest man, telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, currently holds a fortune of US$74 billion.
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Mexico is the second largest economy in Latin America and also one of the most unequal countries in the world. An estimated 61 million live in poverty, with the poverty rate increasing by 0.7 percentage point to 46.2 percent in 2014 from 45.5 percent in 2012.
Despite the global economic slowdown and volatility in financial markets, the select group of millionaires possess about 55 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
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