Reply #31: I hate to tell you, but that info is from the CIA World "fact" book... [View All]

[Up2Late]

...probably one of the worst sources to refer to regarding Mexico and Central/South America.

But even by their numbers, in the 2006 "fact" book, Mexico is the 12th richest country in the world, just ahead of Spain and just behind Canada, with a GDP of 1.068 Trillion Dollars (US): <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html>

Here's the 2006 CIA Factbook link for Mexico: <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html>

I'd have to say that $ 1,068,000,000,000.00 puts Mexico solidly in the First world, they just have a VERY corrupt government that protects the extreme wealth of those at the top and keeps the bottom 30% to 40% in poverty and coming across the border "...to do the work Americans won't do."

This is a very interesting English Language, Mexican Economics website web site, I haven't yet researched who is behind this site, but the data is much more current and shows a very different picture of Mexico's economic heath:

<http://www.mexconnect.com/MEX/lloyds/llydeco0306.html#j>

<http://www.mexconnect.com/MEX/lloyds/llydeco9.html>


BTW, according to what I read last night, the Poverty rate in Mexico is falling at at least twice the rate that poverty is rising in the U.S.:

<http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.com/reports/reports/1205/poverty.htm>

SPECIAL REPORT
DECEMBER 2005

Latin Poverty Declines

Thanks to macro economic improvements, growing remittances and increased social spending, poverty in Latin America has been significantly reduced, a fresh report shows.

BY CHRONICLE STAFF

Thirteen million Latin Americans left the ranks of the region's poor between 2003 and 2005, according to a new report from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

However, there are still 213 million poor in Latin America, of which 88 million live in extreme poverty, the new report, Social Panorama of Latin America, shows.

Measured in percentage of population, the progress has been even greater. The number of poor - defined as those living on less than two dollars a day - fell from 44.3 percent of the total population in 2003 to 40.6 percent in 2005. The number of extreme poor - defined as those living on less than one dollar a day - fell from 19.2 percent in 2003 to 16.8 percent in 2005.

"Improving economic conditions, remittances from emigrants, and increased social expenditures have all helped to turn around the rising trend that prevailed in the region from 1990 on," ECLAC says in the report.

(more at link)

<http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.com/reports/reports/1205/poverty.htm>