IMF Names Mexico’s Werner Head of Western Hemisphere Office

Bloomberg Business week,11/6/2012

The International Monetary Fund chose former Mexican Deputy Finance Minister Alejandro Werner to head its Western Hemisphere department overseeing Latin America.

Werner will take up his post in early January, according to a statement released via e-mail by the IMF today. Currently head of corporate and investment banking at Mexico City-based BBVA Bancomer SA, Werner helped steer Latin America’s second-biggest economy through its deepest recession in almost two decades in 2009 without fueling a surge in the fiscal deficit.

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Give Mexico A Chance

Foreign Policy, Robert Looney, 7/16/12

Just when everyone seemed ready to throw in the towel, the economy is showing signs of fulfilling its potential. Mexico grew by 4.0 percent in 2011, and the IMF is forecasting gains of 3.6 percent for 2012 — hardly stellar for an emerging-market economy, but better than Brazil, with corresponding rates of 2.7 percent and 3.0 percent. What’s more, Mexico has managed to grow in spite of the surge of drug-related violence in key industrial zones…

It’s tempting to attribute Brazil’s economic successes and Mexico’s lackluster performance to their respective approaches to economic policy. Mexico has worked doggedly to implement the neo-liberal Washington Consensus approach to macroeconomic management — budget discipline, central bank independence, anti-inflationary monetary policy, and pro-market liberalization, including the development of a truly private banking system. In contrast, Brazil has mixed market neo-liberalism with an eclectic, proactive approach to economic policy; its “heterodox” features include a large, partially state-owned banking system with complex, discriminatory rules for credit allocation, and reliance on a witch’s brew of state-led investment strategies aimed at eliminating infrastructure bottlenecks…

While it is fashionable in some quarters to attribute Brazil’s higher growth rates to the country’s pragmatic approach to economic management and Mexico’s adherence to the neo-liberal gospel, I believe Mexico’s economic performance is largely a product of the demand for Mexican products by the U.S. The numbers certainly support this view: The IMF found a high correlation between Mexican exports and GDP, with changes in exports statistically accounting for 86 percent of the variations in the country’s growth rate between 1996 and 2010.

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Bank of Mexico helps boost IMF emergency funds

Fox News Latino/EFE, 6/21/2012

The Bank of Mexico said it offered a $10 billion bilateral loan to the International Monetary Fund as part of the international effort to bolster the multilateral financial institution’s reserves.

A total of 37 IMF members are contributing to the effort to help stabilize the global economy and promote growth, the Bank of Mexico said.

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Mexico to push for more IMF funding at G20 summit

Bloomberg Business Week, 6/12/2012

President Calderon

Mexico will use the impending G-20 summit to push the world’s largest economies to increase the resources of the International Monetary Fund and build confidence in the fund’s ability to help European countries shaken by financial crisis, President Felipe Calderon said Tuesday.

“Mexico is seeking the adoption of a plan of integrated, comprehensive, long-term action that will go include, and go beyond, measures to confront and resolve the European crisis,” Calderon said.

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Mexico sees good progress on G20 IMF funding

Reuters, 4/18/12

Promises by countries including Japan and Sweden to boost funding to the International Monetary Fund show good progress towards a Group of 20 deal, Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said on Wednesday.

Meade will chair meetings of the bloc of advanced and developing nations in Washington on Friday where policymakers will discuss boosting the IMF’s financial firepower, an issue that has taken on fresh urgency given a jump in borrowing costs in Spain and Italy this week.

Japan, Sweden and Denmark have already committed a total of $77 billion to help contain the euro zone’s debt crisis and Meade said this was a positive sign for Friday’s talks.

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Mexican Senate approves 145.8% increase in the country’s IMF quota [In Spanish]

Infolatam, 3/4/2012

With 71 votes in favor, the Senate of Mexico approved the proposal issued by President Calderón to raise the country’s quota in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by 145.8 percent. This translates into an annual quota of 3.625 billion special drawing rights (SDRs) that will now increase to an annual quota of 8.912 SDRs.

This increase in resources dedicated to the financial institution will allow the country to “have a greater influence in the decision-making of the IMF governing bodies,” according to a statement made by the panista José Trejo, president of the Treasury Commission of the Senate, during debate.

“Today we have to commit to an extra contribution to the IMF because the moment has come to join ourselves to the new architecture of international finance so that it may generate development, employment, and world hope,” expressed PRI senator Rosario Green in support of this decision.

On the other hand, senators from the left voted against increasing this contribution to the IMF considering that the goal of such increase is to “rescue developed countries.”

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Is violence in Mexico affecting foreign investment? No, say recent reports.

Christian Science Monitor, 8/8/11

Recent reports out of Mexico describe violent border states as lands of economic opportunity, despite the car bombs and dead bodies hanging from pedestrian bridges.

One government report last month showed that seven states where most drug-related murders take place are receiving greater percentages of the country’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) than they were before the drug war began in 2006.

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Mexico IMF Line Request ‘Positive’ for Peso, RBC Says

Business Week, 12/15/2010

Mexico’s request for a larger credit line from the International Monetary Fund should be a “positive” for the peso and may reduce the need to add more foreign reserves, according to RBC Capital Markets.

The request for a $73 billion flexible credit line for two years should be approved, Eduardo Suarez, an analyst at RBC, wrote in a note to clients. The original line ends in April.

“The increase in the size of the flexible credit line means Mexico could reduce its target foreign exchange reserve level (whatever that is), which would be supportive for the peso,” Suarez wrote.

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IMF Plans To Expand Mexico Credit Line To $73B

The Wall Street Journal, 12/14/2010

The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday it plans to expand a contingent credit line to Mexico to around $73 billion from $48 billion and extend the facility for another two years, at the request of Mexican authorities.

The IMF implemented the existing flexible credit line during the economic crisis in 2009, essentially raising Mexico’s international reserves and offering a vote of confidence in the country’s economic and fiscal situation.

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IMF says Mexico will grow 5 percent this year (in Spanish)

Reforma, 10/6/2010

The Mexican economy will grow up to 5 percent in 2010, due to the increase in exports and the recovery of production, according to the International Monetary Fund.

This projection represents a 0.5 percentage point increase over what the organization predicted in July, and much better than the 6.5 percent fall the country experienced in 2009.

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