MEXICO CITY—While most of the world’s premier economies embarked this 12 months on shelling out sprees to cushion the economic strike from Covid, Mexico’s leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has doubled down on finances discipline and austerity regardless of a rise in poverty.

When he took business office two several years back, several economists feared that Mr. López Obrador would behave like other leftist leaders in Latin The united states, managing up huge deficits to fund welfare applications. Alternatively, he now faces criticism for not shelling out more than enough during the pandemic.