Life Is Not Easy: Mexico's Quest for Stability and Growth

In the wake of the debt crisis in 1982, Mexico adopted far reaching reforms but growth and stability remained elusive for many years. At present, the reforms and NAFTA seem to be finally paying off: inflation for 2000 is close to 10 percent and output per capita grew at an average of 5.4 percent during the last five years. However, altogether output per capita was only 9 percent higher in 1999 than in 1980, a great disappointment for particularly the 20 million Mexicans that live on less than $2 a day.