This Survey is published on the responsibility of the Economic and Development Review Committee (EDRC) of the OECD, which is charged with the examination of the economic situation of member countries. The economic situation and policies of Mexico were reviewed by the Committee on 13 March 2019. The Secretariat’s draft report was prepared for the Committee by Sonia Araujo and Lisa Meehan under the supervision of Piritta Sorsa. Statistical research assistance was provided by Roland Tusz and editorial assistance by Carolina González. The Survey also benefited from contributions from Raúl Ibarra Ramírez, Luis Aranda, Mauricio Hitschfeld Arriagada and Séamus O’Donovan.The previous Survey of Mexico was issued in January 2017.

Commitment to fiscal targets, sound debt management, a flexible exchange rate and an appropriate monetary policy stance have supported moderate growth in spite of several headwinds in recent years.

Moderate growth over the past two decades has been supported by oil wealth, working age population growth, and open trade and investment policies. A solid macroeconomic framework has delivered fiscal discipline, abated inflation and enabled Mexico to weather well various commodity price and emerging markets shocks (). Oil production has been declining, dropping from 9% to 4% of GDP, and from 16% to 6% of total exports over the last decade.

The OECD long-term model includes projections based on different policy scenarios (Guillemette and Turner, 2018[89]). This encompasses policy choices in areas where Mexico and other emerging economies tend to lag (eg, education and institutional quality), and in areas where advanced OECD countries display substantial heterogeneity (eg, product market regulations and innovation policies).