MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gave the U.S. greenback a vote of confidence on Monday after being requested whether or not the buck’s weakening may immediate a diversification of Mexico’s international trade reserves.

“We’ll proceed to contemplate the greenback as the primary world forex,” Lopez Obrador instructed a press convention.

“We have now enough causes to not swap to different currencies,” he stated, pointing to Mexico’s “more and more shut” financial ties with the USA.

The US is by far Mexico’s largest buying and selling associate, with the 2 economies having been tightly built-in for many years in sectors starting from vitality, cars and agriculture.

The greenback remained weaker in opposition to most of its main friends on Monday as fears linger over a attainable recession in the USA later this yr.

When requested if he would advocate that the central financial institution diversify Mexico’s international trade reserves, Lopez Obrador stated that “even with a monetary disaster sooner or later, the greenback will proceed to be a very powerful forex necessary on this planet”.

Regardless of issues over the recession, optimistic financial indicators helped push the Mexican peso on Friday to its highest stage in opposition to the greenback since 2017.

The Mexican president’s remarks observe feedback by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, one other leftist, during which he expressed help for a substitute for the US greenback for commerce in sure circumstances, together with in South America.