Mexico, the Remaking of an Economy

Book excerpt: Today Mexico is viewed as a success story in the management of economic adjustment and structural reform. Inflation is under control, capital and foreign investment are returning, and output growth has increased. Mexico's recovery, however, has been neither fast nor smooth, and the social costs the country has borne for the past several years have been very large. In 1982, Mexico faced a severe balance-of-payments crisis. Rampant inflation, capital flight, and a collapse of economic activity were the consequences of an overexpansionist fiscal policy and adverse external conditions. For the next five years, the Mexican government struggled to restore stability and growth without success. Falling oil prices and lack of adequate external financing made these goals extremely difficult to achieve. With the implementation of the Economic Solidarity Pact, inflation was finally brought down in 1988. However, fiscal discipline and far-reaching reforms notwithstanding, growth did not follow. To convince investors to put their capital in Mexico required something more. Initiatives such as the reprivatization of the banking system and the pursuit of a free trade agreement with the United States finally produced the observed turnaround starting in 1990. In this book, Nora Lustig tells the story of adjustment and reform in Mexico from the onset of the debt crisis in 1982 through the early 1990s when the sweeping reforms began to bear fruit. The author looks closely at the social costs of adjustment and who bore the greatest share. In addition, she explores the characteristics of the new development strategy and analyzes the motivations and potential consequences of Mexico's search for greatereconomic integration with the United States.