[achiever]

1. The Mexican economy has been hit harder by the global economic crisis than other countries in Latin America by dint of its extremely strong links to the United States. Moreover, the consensus view of a sluggish rebound in the U.S. economy dictates a slow rebound of the Mexican economy.

2. Growing investor concern about the growing violence associated with narcotics trafficking. In recent months, a number of publications have posed the question of “whether Mexico is the new Colombia?”

3. The realization – finally – that the depletion of Mexico’s oil reserves is a major medium-term problem for the country
and that the ‘reforms’ enacted by the government are quite inadequate.

4. Uncertainty surrounding Mexico’s fiscal policy, particularly in light of the success of the PRI in recent mid-term elections.

In turn, the rating agencies have raised the possibility of a downgrade of the country’s debt rating. One further slight negative factor was the announcement on September 1 that the central bank would halt its daily auction sales of US$50 million/purchases of pesos effective at the end of the month.