MEXICO’S government cut its 2015 budget by nearly 3 percent Friday after a drop in global oil prices hurt public finances, and it is shelving a tainted US$3.75 billion high-speed train tender as part of its austerity measures.

    Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said the cuts were intended to reassure global investors that Mexico will keep its finances in order and he promised they would not derail an economic recovery this year.

    Latin America’s No. 2 economy, a major crude exporter, has posted weak growth in recent years and the drop in oil prices has dampened confidence in the impact of a landmark opening of the state-run energy sector this year to private companies.

    The slump has also battered Mexico’s peso currency, which blew past the 15-per dollar level Friday for the first time since 2009 before it recovered slightly.

    Mexico’s central bank warned Thursday the peso could see steeper losses and its governor, Agustin Carstens, advised the government to act to prevent a further run on the currency. On Friday, the central bank said that given the sharp decline in oil prices, and the likelihood they would stay low for a while, the depreciation of the peso was probably not transitory.

    “We have to make decisions because our budgetary reality has changed,” Videgaray told a news conference.(SD-Agencies)