Posted on 05/01/2009 12:10:12 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Reliance on exports has left country short of options.
Even before the H1N1 swine flu brought much of Mexico to a standstill, its economy faced the worst slump since the 1930s.
“This was already an extremely serious situation,” said Rogelio Ramírez de la O, director of Mexico’s Ecanal consultancy.
“We’ve now suffered an extra shock and I doubt this is going to be a two-week affair. The name of Mexico has been badly damaged. The economy may contract 7pc or more this year,” he said.
Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard said swine flu was costing his district $72m (£48m) a day, not helped by the latest state edict telling the city’s 22m inhabitants to shut themselves indoors for five days. Tourists are vanishing. Argentina, Peru, Cuba, and Ecuador have all restricted flights to Mexico, and France has called for an EU-wide flight ban.
The roots of Mexico’s crisis lie in its reliance on exports to the US to generate a fifth of GDP. The country is discovering the dark side of the NAFTA free-trade accord with the Anglo-Saxons, which has broken the old model of economic nationalism – or “import substitution” – pursued for nearly 70 years by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
“They put all their eggs in one basket by relying so much on the US,” said Luis Carlos Nino, Latin America strategist at Capital Economics. A belt of plants in north Mexico that supply the US auto, aerospace, plastics, and electronics industries has been ravaged.
“Demand has fallen off a cliff, and on top of that the commodity bubble has burst. They have regarded their oil industry as the goose that lays the golden egg, spending the money instead of putting it aside in a sovereign wealth fund for a rainy day, as Chile
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I already have a bad name for Mexico.
A boon to the San Diego economy as many cruise ships skip their Mexico destination and dock in San Diego instead.
More Illegal immigrants coming?
Apparently some cruise ships are not allowing their passengers go off board in Mexico.
Does anyone know which cruise ships are saying no re off ship visits to Mexican cities?
“Does anyone know which cruise ships are saying no re off ship visits to Mexican cities?”
Here is a dated answer to my question.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242126/posts
Cruise ships skipping Mexican ports of call
San Diego.com ^ | 29 April 2009 | Penny Crabtree
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