It is shown that the inefficiencies created by the “soft” budget constraint, enjoyed by enterprises in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, will continue so long as governments are unable credibly to threaten not to bail out loss-makers. Commitment to a “hard” budget constraint can best be...

This paper considers the implications of the prospective aging of the U.S. population for the social security system and concludes that the large and growing cashflow surpluses of the social security trust funds should be saved to help insulate living stands against this change. A number of...

The paper surveys the major economic, financial, and administrative issues that confront social security systems in Latin America. The larger systems have contributed substantially to public sector financial disequilibria. Expenditures of the younger systems with more limited coverage could...

This paper analyzes the performance and development of the Mexican pension annuity market in Mexico that stemmed from the 1997 pension reform. The Mexican experience displays interesting characteristics that provide lessons for other countries that still need to design the decumulation phase of...

State ownership in financial intermediation in Mexico has continued to be significant in qualitative as well as quantitative terms, with about 20-25 percent per cent of the total credit of the banking system provided by development banks (DBs) and funds during the last five years. The importance...

Financial System Assessment Program (FSAP) update mission to Mexico from February 22 to March 8, 2006, an update of the observance of the CPSS Core Principles for Systemically Important Payment Systems (CPSIPS) was carried out. The Mexican authorities provided the FSAP team with a note in which...

This paper highlights that central banks from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru (the LA5 countries) reaped the benefits of what they sowed in successfully weathering the global crisis. The adoption of far-reaching institutional, policy, and operational reforms during the last two decades...

Mexican macroeconomic statistics are in a period of transition as recent laws have strengthened the legal backing and have changed institutional arrangements. Mexico is in observance of the Special Data Dissemination Standard, meeting the specifications for data coverage, periodicity and...

This paper presents a Detailed Assessment of Mexico’s compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision and Transparency of Banking Supervision. Fiscal consolidation reduced the gross public debt-to-GDP ratio to below 50 percent, providing the foundations for a...

This technical note on financing of the private sector for Mexico describes the evolution, composition, and determinants of financing to the nonfinancial private sector in Mexico between 2000 and 2005. Equity issuance has not played an important role in financing the private sector in Mexico...