Soda Sales Fall Further in Mexico’s Second Year of Taxing Them –
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In the first year of a big soda tax in Mexico, sales of sugary drinks fell.
Mexico’s soda tax took effect in 2014, and applied to all beverages
that included added sugar, including carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks and sweetened iced teas.
Studies on the first year of the tax found that sugary beverage consumption fell substantially, with the
biggest decreases among low-income Mexicans — the group at highest risk of obesity-related diseases.
The finding represents the best evidence to date of how sizable taxes on sugary drinks,
increasingly favored by large American cities, may influence consumer behavior.
But industry analysts and anti-tax advocates had argued
that the one-year results could just be a blip that would reverse as companies retooled their products, or as consumers adjusted to higher prices for their favorite drinks.
Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., and the Illinois county
that contains Chicago have recently passed soda taxes similar in size to the tax in Mexico.
Over all, sugary drink sales fell by 5.5 percent in 2014 compared with the year before, and by 9.7 percent in 2015 (again compared with 2013).