MEXICO CITY, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's austerity-minded president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on Tuesday returned a third of his salary to the state treasury.

Lopez took office on Dec. 1 and pledged to curb public spending, including by slashing his own wages. He gave back 29 percent of the amount paid to him for the first two weeks.

At a press conference, he reiterated his monthly salary should be around 108,000 pesos (5,373 U.S. dollars), in keeping with his austerity plan.

The president said he was paid 76,159 pesos and 59 cents according to the existing law and decided to return 22,313 pesos and 29 cents.

"I already gave it back to the treasury," Lopez told reporters.

He has also called on other top public servants to renounce their exorbitant salaries, including judges in the supreme court, who are against the measure.

Mexico's long-existing "gilded bureaucracy" must end, he said.

The country's debt ballooned to a record 48.2 percent of the gross domestic product in 2016, but decreased slightly to 45.4 percent last year.