Mexico is among the ten largest countries in the world, it is the second largest economy in Latin America after Brazil. It ranks as the 15th world economy, according to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at exchange rate, and the 11th in terms of GDP at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). It has been classified as an upper middle-income country by the World Bank (CEPAL, 2018; OECD, 2017a; Banco Mundial, 2019). The Mexican currency is the Mexican Peso (MXN) and the current exchange rate by the Central Bank as of 18 January 2019 is 19.1 pesos per USD and 21.7 pesos per Euro (Banco de México, 2018).

Mexico has an open economy, oriented to exports and highly regulated free trade agreements with more than 40 countries including the European Union, Japan, Central and South America, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada, which is currently under revision and negotiation. This has put Mexico within the highest 10 export economies in the world. The country’s growth is projected to increase from 2.0% in 2017 to 2.2% in 2018 and 2.5% in 2019, supported by higher US growth. However, the growth forecast was lower than expected in April 2018, reflecting the impact on investment and domestic demand of prolonged uncertainty related to trade (International Monetary Fund, 2018).

While Mexico has been a member of the OECD since 1994, its per capita Gross National Income is the lowest among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members –58% below the OECD average in 2016, in terms of Purchasing Power Parity. Compared to upper middle-income countries (UMICs), however, Mexico’s per capita Gross National Income (GNI) is 7% above the average of that group (The World Bank, 2019).

References:

Banco de México. (2018). Mercado cambiario, tipo de cambio, Banco de México.

Banco Mundial. (2019). México: proyectos.

CEPAL. (2018). Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe, 2018 (LC/PUB.2018/17-P).

International Monetary Fund. (2018). World Economic Outlook Challenges to Steady Growth.

OCDE. (2017a). Estudios Económicos de la OCDE México (OCDE Publishing, Ed.). OCDE Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/mexico-2017-OECD-Estudios-economicos-de-la-ocde-vision-general.pdf

The World Bank. (2019). Mexico Data. https://data.worldbank.org/country/mexico