Sunday, June 19, 2011

Odd Reason to Support Carstens

Via Sebastian Mallaby:
Despite its record of financial crises, Mexico now enjoys low inflation, a strong budget position, and robust economic growth. Perhaps Carstens, its leading economic technocrat, has some lessons to teach Europe.
The inflation portion is certainly true. But given that Mexico hasn't had a financial crisis since 1994, that reference is a bit dated with regard to Carstens. And the nation faces some serious long-term budgetary problems, stemming from a weak tax base and declining oil revenues, even if the fiscal situation isn't too problematic right now. But most odd is using economic growth as an argument for Carstens and Mexiconomics: 2010 notwithstanding, the nation's growth rate has been a disappointment for basically the entire century:

For a middle-income nation seeking to become a wealthy nation, a decade's worth of growth that doesn't top 2 percent except during recoveries from historic crises is not something to be celebrated.

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