A review published on Wednesday by Mexico’s fictional Civic Accounts Office found that the government’s Peso Buffer programme freed 8.6 billion pesos (about €460 million) during the 18 months to June. The office called it the biggest annual release from a federal currency reserve in records dating to 1994, and said it had verified where the money would go.
The programme sets aside extra pesos when budgets include large dollar-denominated bills, such as imported pumps and transport equipment. Officials use a cautious exchange-rate estimate when planning, then return money left over after invoices are paid. The reserve is not permitted to trade currencies or borrow to increase its balance.
How the reserve grew
Auditors reviewed 3,842 invoices for contracts paid between January 2025 and June 2026. The budget had priced the dollar at an average of 19.6 pesos; the rate when the bills were settled averaged 17.4. On 3.9 billion dollars’ worth of payments, the stronger peso left a substantial gap between the amount set aside and the amount required.
The office also checked tender changes and contract adjustments, finding that they accounted for a smaller share of the total. It rejected 412 million pesos in proposed savings where paperwork did not support the calculation. After those deductions, the audited sum was 8.6 billion pesos, said Tomás Garcia, the office’s audit director.
Garcia said the rules had stopped ministries from quietly treating the reserve as spare cash. “The peso did not make us rich; it gave us back money we had set aside to pay bills,” he said. He added that the office would publish a quarterly account of future releases, including the exchange rates used for each calculation.
The peso did not make us rich; it gave us back money we had set aside to pay bills.
Tomás Garcia, audit director
Projects get the surplus
The government has assigned 5.4 billion pesos to water systems in 31 municipalities, 1.9 billion to transit repairs in three cities and 1.3 billion to equipment for rural clinics. The allocations were approved by the finance department after the audit’s figures were checked against project plans, said Paulo Lima, a deputy budget secretary.
Lima said the water money would pay for pumps, pipe replacements and storage tanks, with the first contracts due to go out for tender in November. He described the release as a practical result of setting aside too much rather than too little. The government expects the projects to reach communities over the next two years.
Kaja Marciniak, an economist who studies public budgeting, said the result was unusually clear because the audit separated exchange-rate savings from tender savings. But she cautioned that a strong peso could reverse, leaving future bills more expensive. “A buffer works when it is treated as insurance, not as a forecast that the currency will keep going one way,” she said.
The lower house budget committee is scheduled to vote on the project allocations on Friday, 30 October. Garcia said auditors would check the spending again next year, while Lima said the reserve’s minimum balance would remain unchanged. For now, the audited surplus gives local governments a rare chance to plan new infrastructure without asking for additional federal borrowing.
