Mexico CBDC delayed as other countries rally to join the bandwagon

In the past two years, CBDCs have dominated the global financial landscape. While some nationalities have made progress, others have experienced setbacks. After more than a year since its announcement, Mexico’s proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) is still in its infancy and is unlikely to come into existence before 2024.

Mexico’s CBDC could launch in 2024

The Bank of Mexico and its deputy governor, Jonathan Heath, projected in late 2021 that the country’s digital peso would go online in 2024. In addition, Victoria Rodrguez Ceja, the governor of the Bank of Mexico, suggested in April 2022 that the CBDC would be in circulation by 2025.

However, the Bank of Mexico’s statement from last week says otherwise. Local outlet El Sol de Mexico contacted the bank with a request for transparency regarding the status of the CBDC. The central bank’s response was:

“The result of this initial phase entails the preparation of a budget that is currently being determined, and will, in turn, allow the establishment of a probable date on which said CBDC will be available.”

Bank of Mexico

According to the Bank of Mexico’s statement, the project has yet to advance past the basic budgeting stage. The bank added that during the 2022 fiscal year, it allocated 10.22 million pesos ($532,000) to establish the CBDC.

The context strongly suggests that the CBDC’s timeline has yet to be discovered. However, the Bank of Mexico likely meant to specify a definite launch date within the 2024-2025 timeframe.

CBDCs and crypto take a global hold

In 2021, Mexico’s interest in cryptocurrencies grew substantially. At this time, forty percent of the nation’s businesses were considering embracing blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Moreover, the Mexican government installed a Bitcoin ATM in the Senate building in response to the country’s growing Bitcoin interest.

Many nations are currently developing CBDCs, while others have already implemented them. China is the first big economy to pilot a CBDC, while many other countries actively seek to shift to digital currencies.

Recently, the central bank of Turkey (CBRT) completed the first phase of the digital Turkish lira’s CBDC pilot program. In addition, it plans to continue testing in 2023.