Mexico's spending on security far below OECD average: report

MEXICO CITY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Mexico spends only 1 percent of its GDP on security, far below the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members despite its escalating violence, said a new report on Tuesday.

According to the "2018 Mexico Peace Index" report released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Mexico spends only 1 percent of its GDP on domestic security and justice systems, which is about 60 percent of the OECD average.

Only Denmark and Luxembourg spend the same percentage on security, but the two countries do not face a similar security problem. Mexico saw over 29,000 direct victims of homicide in 2017, the highest number in two decades.

The IEP estimated that violence in Mexico cost 4.7 trillion pesos (249 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, equivalent to 21 percent of the GDP.

Carlos Juarez, the IEP's director in Mexico, said the country needed to devote more resources to the justice system to ensure crimes do not go unpunished and to tackle the root causes of violence. Enditem