MEXICO CITY - Five years after a historic election triumph, Mexican President Vicente Fox remains popular despite a slow economy and his failure to beat violent drug gangs on the U.S. border.
A poll by the Reforma newspaper released on Thursday gave Fox a 61 percent approval rating, his highest in more than two years.
Fox has fallen short of promises to create millions more jobs and spur economic growth since he ended 71 years of one-party rule in 2000.
And while Fox claims to be winning the war on narcotics traffickers, drug-related killings have blighted northern Mexican cities.
But the former Coca-Cola executive is widely seen as clean in a country tired of decades of corrupt politicians and surveys show rising support for government housing and anti-poverty programs.
German Martinez, a senior deputy from Fox’s National Action Party, said his popularity was mainly due to Mexico avoiding economic turmoil in recent years, unlike some Latin American neighbors.
“It is the responsible management of the economy. Everyone gives him credit for that,” Martinez said.
The Reforma poll was Fox’s highest rating since June 2003.
Another poll in the El Universal daily also gave Fox a rating of 61 percent, up 2 points from a similar survey three months ago.
While Fox basked in high popularity ahead of his state of the union address on Thursday, the party he ousted from power, the main opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has been tearing itself apart in a power struggle.
A high-ranking party official accused PRI leader Roberto Madrazo this week of lying and cheating to become the party’s presidential candidate. Madrazo stepped down on Wednesday to focus on the primary election.
Source: Reuters
Mexico sees growth slowing to 3.5 pct in 2007
Mexicos economic growth will slow to an insufficient rate of about 3.5 percent next year, the central bank said on Monday, adding that increased productivity and competitiveness were vital to job creation.
Guillermo Guemez, the central banks deputy governor and a voting member of its five-man monetary policy board, said a slowdown in the United States and the wider global economy would affect Mexicos growth under President-elect Felipe Calderon, who begins his six-year term on Dec. 1.
Mexican gross domestic product expanded 5.1 percent in the first half of this year and is
Mexicos economy grew over 5 pct in first quarter
Mexicos economy grew more than 5 percent in the first quarter on a sharp rise in industrial output, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.
Its forecast was in line with a central bank estimate last week of 5.2 percent growth in the first three months of the year.
The Finance Ministry also said Mexicos fiscal surplus stood at 51.553 billion pesos in the first quarter, boosted by oil exports, tax collection and the sale of government assets, including its majority stake in airport operator GAP (GAPB.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) (PAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research).
Mexico, Latin
Mexico retailers seek antitrust law to slow Walmex
Mexico's long-established retailers want the Congress to strengthen antitrust laws to stop Wal-Mart's expansion juggernaut from devouring smaller businesses, a sector leader said on Thursday.
Vicente Yanez, head of the retail association ANTAD that includes about 100 top retailers other than Wal-Mart Mexico, said fierce competition from the global powerhouse is one factor squeezing sales for other retailers, along with a thriving informal economy and tepid economic growth in Mexico.
Yanez urged lawmakers to pass proposals to bring anti-monopoly laws to international standards and provide for more "equilibrium" in the market.
"In Mexico we're used to
Mexico's Bolsa Falls on Interest Rates Concern: Latin Stocks
Mexico's benchmark stock index fell for a third day after an employment report from Washington spurred concern higher rates will slow the economy in the U.S., the biggest market for Mexican exports.
The Mexican Bolsa fell 186.60, or 1.3 percent, to 14,425.62 as of 2:51 p.m. New York time, reducing the gain in the week to 0.1 percent. Elsewhere in the region, Brazil's Bovespa was little changed, falling 26.54, or 0.1 percent, to 26,443.36.
Employers in the U.S. added 207,000 workers in July, the Labor Department said, exceeding the median economist estimate
Mexicos Economy Hits 6-Year High Note
Mexicos economy expanded at the fastest clip in six years in the first three months of 2006, a performance that analysts say could help boost the electoral chances of the ruling conservative party.
The nations economic output grew 5.5% from the January-March period last year, the Treasury Ministry said Wednesday. Construction activity grew at a blistering 8.3% pace, thanks to a government-led housing push, and the factory sector accelerated 7.1% on revved-up auto production. Those are the two main drivers of industrial activity, which expanded 7%. Mexicos service sector also extended its solid run with
Mexicos Asur wants new airport south of Cancun
Mexican airport operator Asur has asked for a permit to build and operate a new airport in the Mayan Riviera, a popular area of spectacular Caribbean beaches south of the huge resort of Cancun.
Asur (ASURB.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) (ASR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) operates nine airports in southern Mexico, including one in Cancun and another on the island of Cozumel just off Mexicos Caribbean coast.
The Mayan Riviera includes the fast-growing resorts of Playa del Carmen and Tulum, popular among European and American tourists.
More : today.reuters.com
Brazil's economy overtakes Mexico
The hefty appreciation of Brazil's currency against the dollar over the last two years has helped Brazil overtake Mexico as Latin America's largest economy in dollar terms.
Brazil had gross domestic product of $794.4 billion for the four quarters ending June 30, according to a report issued Thursday by the Brazilian Census Bureau, known by its Portuguese acronym IBGE.
Mexican GDP stood at $765.7 billion for the same period, Mexico's government reported earlier.
GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in any given country, and Brazilian GDP has been growing faster than Mexico's.
But the biggest
Mexico's Central Bank Reduces Rates to Boost Economy (Update1)
Mexico's central bank reduced its benchmark lending rate for a second time in as many months to help jumpstart a slowing economy, taking advantage of slowing inflation.
The Bank of Mexico said in a statement it will allow the overnight rate to decline to 9.25 percent from 9.50 percent following a reduction of 0.25 percentage point at its Aug. 26 meeting, which marked the first time ever the central bank set a rate for the market.
``The Mexican economy reduced its expansion rate during the first half of the year, showing lower
Mexico assets down on US economy, emerging markets
Mexican stocks and the peso fell on Friday on concerns of a slowdown in U.S. economic growth and a slump in emerging markets.
The IPC stock market index < .MXX> dropped 1.50 percent to 21,175.59 points and the peso currency was off 0.41 percent at 11.1000 per dollar.
Mexican markets fell sharply on Thursday after the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its business activity index slid to -0.4 in September from 18.5 in August, its weakest level in more than 3 years.
Mexicos economy is especially vulnerable to a U.S. slowdown as Americans buy 90
Mexicos economic activity grew 4.4 pct in Feb
Mexicos economy expanded a healthy 4.4 percent in February compared with a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday in the latest sign that growth picked up in the first quarter.
But Februarys year-on-year expansion was not as strong as Januarys 5.7 percent leap and economic output fell 0.61 percent in February from January on a seasonally adjusted basis. But it still set the basis for a solid quarterly GDP growth.
The monthly IGAE index measures about 96 percent of Mexican economic output, excluding only fishing and forestry.
Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected a
