Home

Mexico vs. United States

Economy

MexicoUnited States
Economy - overview

Mexico's $2.4 trillion economy - 11th largest in the world - has become increasingly oriented toward manufacturing since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) entered into force in 1994. Per capita income is roughly one-third that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal.

Mexico has become the US' second-largest export market and third-largest source of imports. In 2017, two-way trade in goods and services exceeded $623 billion. Mexico has free trade agreements with 46 countries, putting more than 90% of its trade under free trade agreements. In 2012, Mexico formed the Pacific Alliance with Peru, Colombia, and Chile.

Mexico's current government, led by President Enrique PENA NIETO, has emphasized economic reforms, passing and implementing sweeping energy, financial, fiscal, and telecommunications reform legislation, among others, with the long-term aim to improve competitiveness and economic growth across the Mexican economy. Since 2015, Mexico has held public auctions of oil and gas exploration and development rights and for long-term electric power generation contracts. Mexico has also issued permits for private sector import, distribution, and retail sales of refined petroleum products in an effort to attract private investment into the energy sector and boost production.

Since 2013, Mexico's economic growth has averaged 2% annually, falling short of private-sector expectations that President PENA NIETO's sweeping reforms would bolster economic prospects. Growth is predicted to remain below potential given falling oil production, weak oil prices, structural issues such as low productivity, high inequality, a large informal sector employing over half of the workforce, weak rule of law, and corruption. Mexico's economy remains vulnerable to uncertainty surrounding the future of NAFTA - because the United States is its top trading partner and the two countries share integrated supply chains - and to potential shifts in domestic policies following the inauguration of a new a president in December 2018.

The US has the most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $59,500. US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers, pharmaceuticals, and medical, aerospace, and military equipment; however, their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. Based on a comparison of GDP measured at purchasing power parity conversion rates, the US economy in 2014, having stood as the largest in the world for more than a century, slipped into second place behind China, which has more than tripled the US growth rate for each year of the past four decades.

In the US, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, businesses face higher barriers to enter their rivals' home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets.

Long-term problems for the US include stagnation of wages for lower-income families, inadequate investment in deteriorating infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, energy shortages, and sizable current account and budget deficits.

The onrush of technology has been a driving factor in the gradual development of a "two-tier" labor market in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. But the globalization of trade, and especially the rise of low-wage producers such as China, has put additional downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on the return to capital. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. Since 1996, dividends and capital gains have grown faster than wages or any other category of after-tax income.

Imported oil accounts for more than 50% of US consumption and oil has a major impact on the overall health of the economy. Crude oil prices doubled between 2001 and 2006, the year home prices peaked; higher gasoline prices ate into consumers' budgets and many individuals fell behind in their mortgage payments. Oil prices climbed another 50% between 2006 and 2008, and bank foreclosures more than doubled in the same period. Besides dampening the housing market, soaring oil prices caused a drop in the value of the dollar and a deterioration in the US merchandise trade deficit, which peaked at $840 billion in 2008. Because the US economy is energy-intensive, falling oil prices since 2013 have alleviated many of the problems the earlier increases had created.

The sub-prime mortgage crisis, falling home prices, investment bank failures, tight credit, and the global economic downturn pushed the US into a recession by mid-2008. GDP contracted until the third quarter of 2009, the deepest and longest downturn since the Great Depression. To help stabilize financial markets, the US Congress established a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program in October 2008. The government used some of these funds to purchase equity in US banks and industrial corporations, much of which had been returned to the government by early 2011. In January 2009, Congress passed and former President Barack OBAMA signed a bill providing an additional $787 billion fiscal stimulus to be used over 10 years - two-thirds on additional spending and one-third on tax cuts - to create jobs and to help the economy recover. In 2010 and 2011, the federal budget deficit reached nearly 9% of GDP. In 2012, the Federal Government reduced the growth of spending and the deficit shrank to 7.6% of GDP. US revenues from taxes and other sources are lower, as a percentage of GDP, than those of most other countries.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required major shifts in national resources from civilian to military purposes and contributed to the growth of the budget deficit and public debt. Through FY 2018, the direct costs of the wars will have totaled more than $1.9 trillion, according to US Government figures.

In March 2010, former President OBAMA signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), a health insurance reform that was designed to extend coverage to an additional 32 million Americans by 2016, through private health insurance for the general population and Medicaid for the impoverished. Total spending on healthcare - public plus private - rose from 9.0% of GDP in 1980 to 17.9% in 2010.

In July 2010, the former president signed the DODD-FRANK Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a law designed to promote financial stability by protecting consumers from financial abuses, ending taxpayer bailouts of financial firms, dealing with troubled banks that are "too big to fail," and improving accountability and transparency in the financial system - in particular, by requiring certain financial derivatives to be traded in markets that are subject to government regulation and oversight.

The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) announced plans in December 2012 to purchase $85 billion per month of mortgage-backed and Treasury securities in an effort to hold down long-term interest rates, and to keep short-term rates near zero until unemployment dropped below 6.5% or inflation rose above 2.5%. The Fed ended its purchases during the summer of 2014, after the unemployment rate dropped to 6.2%, inflation stood at 1.7%, and public debt fell below 74% of GDP. In December 2015, the Fed raised its target for the benchmark federal funds rate by 0.25%, the first increase since the recession began. With continued low growth, the Fed opted to raise rates several times since then, and in December 2017, the target rate stood at 1.5%.

In December 2017, Congress passed and former President Donald TRUMP signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which, among its various provisions, reduces the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%; lowers the individual tax rate for those with the highest incomes from 39.6% to 37%, and by lesser percentages for those at lower income levels; changes many deductions and credits used to calculate taxable income; and eliminates in 2019 the penalty imposed on taxpayers who do not obtain the minimum amount of health insurance required under the ACA. The new taxes took effect on 1 January 2018; the tax cut for corporations are permanent, but those for individuals are scheduled to expire after 2025. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) under the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new law will reduce tax revenues and increase the federal deficit by about $1.45 trillion over the 2018-2027 period. This amount would decline if economic growth were to exceed the JCT's estimate.

GDP (purchasing power parity)$2,525,481,000,000 (2019 est.)

$2,526,859,000,000 (2018 est.)

$2,472,586,000,000 (2017 est.)

note: data are in 2010 dollars
$20,524,945,000,000 (2019 est.)

$20,090,748,000,000 (2018 est.)

$19,519,353,000,000 (2017 est.)

note: data are in 2010 dollars
GDP - real growth rate-0.3% (2019 est.)

2.19% (2018 est.)

2.34% (2017 est.)
2.16% (2019 est.)

3% (2018 est.)

2.33% (2017 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP)$19,796 (2019 est.)

$20,024 (2018 est.)

$19,816 (2017 est.)

note: data are in 2010 dollars
$62,530 (2019 est.)

$61,498 (2018 est.)

$60,062 (2017 est.)

note: data are in 2010 dollars
GDP - composition by sectoragriculture: 3.6% (2017 est.)

industry: 31.9% (2017 est.)

services: 64.5% (2017 est.)
agriculture: 0.9% (2017 est.)

industry: 19.1% (2017 est.)

services: 80% (2017 est.)
Population below poverty line41.9% (2018 est.)15.1% (2010 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage sharelowest 10%: 2%

highest 10%: 40% (2014)
lowest 10%: 2%

highest 10%: 30% (2007 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices)3.6% (2019 est.)

4.9% (2018 est.)

6% (2017 est.)
1.8% (2019 est.)

2.4% (2018 est.)

2.1% (2017 est.)
Labor force50.914 million (2020 est.)146.128 million (2020 est.)

note: includes unemployed
Labor force - by occupationagriculture: 13.4%

industry: 24.1%

services: 61.9% (2011)
agriculture: 0.7% (2009)

industry: 20.3% (2009)

services: 37.3% (2009)

industry and services: 24.2% (2009)

manufacturing: 17.6% (2009)

farming, forestry, and fishing: 0.7% (2009)

manufacturing, extraction, transportation, and crafts: 20.3% (2009)

managerial, professional, and technical: 37.3% (2009)

sales and office: 24.2% (2009)

other services: 17.6% (2009)

note: figures exclude the unemployed
Unemployment rate3.49% (2019 est.)

3.33% (2018 est.)

note: underemployment may be as high as 25%
3.89% (2018 est.)

4.4% (2017 est.)
Distribution of family income - Gini index36.8 (2018 est.)

48.3 (2008)
41.1 (2016 est.)

40.8 (1997)
Budgetrevenues: 261.4 billion (2017 est.)

expenditures: 273.8 billion (2017 est.)
revenues: 3.315 trillion (2017 est.)

expenditures: 3.981 trillion (2017 est.)

note: revenues exclude social contributions of approximately $1.0 trillion; expenditures exclude social benefits of approximately $2.3 trillion
Industriesfood and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, tourismhighly diversified, world leading, high-technology innovator, second-largest industrial output in the world; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining
Industrial production growth rate-0.6% (2017 est.)2.3% (2017 est.)
Agriculture - productssugar cane, maize, milk, oranges, sorghum, tomatoes, poultry, wheat, green chillies/peppers, eggsmaize, milk, soybeans, wheat, sugar cane, sugar beet, poultry, potatoes, cotton, pork
Exports$491.593 billion (2019 est.)

$484.595 billion (2018 est.)

$457.693 billion (2017 est.)
$2,377,156,000,000 (2019 est.)

$2,379,936,000,000 (2018 est.)

$2,310,851,000,000 (2017 est.)
Exports - commoditiescars and vehicle parts, computers, delivery trucks, crude petroleum, insulated wiring (2019)refined petroleum, crude petroleum, cars and vehicle parts, integrated circuits, aircraft (2019)
Exports - partnersUnited States 75% (2019)Canada 17%, Mexico 16%, China 7%, Japan 5% (2019)
Imports$480.886 billion (2019 est.)

$485.211 billion (2018 est.)

$458.381 billion (2017 est.)
$3,214,184,000,000 (2019 est.)

$3,179,875,000,000 (2018 est.)

$3,054,759,000,000 (2017 est.)
Imports - commoditiesintegrated circuits, refined petroleum, cars and vehicle parts, office machinery/parts, telephones (2019)cars, crude petroleum, computers, broadcasting equipment, packaged medicines (2019)
Imports - partnersUnited States 54%, China 14% (2019)China 18%, Mexico 15%, Canada 13%, Japan 6%, Germany 5% (2019)
Debt - external$456.713 billion (2019 est.)

$448.268 billion (2018 est.)
$20,275,951,000,000 (2019 est.)

$19,452,478,000,000 (2018 est.)

note: approximately 4/5ths of US external debt is denominated in US dollars; foreign lenders have been willing to hold US dollar denominated debt instruments because they view the dollar as the world's reserve currency
Exchange ratesMexican pesos (MXN) per US dollar -

19.8 (2020 est.)

19.22824 (2019 est.)

20.21674 (2018 est.)

15.848 (2014 est.)

13.292 (2013 est.)
British pounds per US dollar: 0.7836 (2017 est.), 0.738 (2016 est.), 0.738 (2015 est.), 0.607 (2014 est), 0.6391 (2013 est.)
Canadian dollars per US dollar: 1, 1.308 (2017 est.), 1.3256 (2016 est.), 1.3256 (2015 est.), 1.2788 (2014 est.), 1.0298 (2013 est.)
Chinese yuan per US dollar: 1, 6.7588 (2017 est.), 6.6445 (2016 est.), 6.2275 (2015 est.), 6.1434 (2014 est.), 6.1958 (2013 est.)
euros per US dollar: 0.885 (2017 est.), 0.903 (2016 est.), 0.9214(2015 est.), 0.885 (2014 est.), 0.7634 (2013 est.)
Japanese yen per US dollar: 111.10 (2017 est.), 108.76 (2016 est.), 108.76 (2015 est.), 121.02 (2014 est.), 97.44 (2013 est.)

note 1: the following countries and territories use the US dollar officially as their legal tender: British Virgin Islands, Ecuador, El Salvador, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Timor Leste, Turks and Caicos, and islands of the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba)

note 2: the following countries and territories use the US dollar as official legal tender alongside local currency: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama

note 3: the following countries and territories widely accept the US dollar as a dominant currency but have yet to declare it as legal tender: Bermuda, Burma, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Somalia
Fiscal yearcalendar year1 October - 30 September
Public debt54.3% of GDP (2017 est.)

56.8% of GDP (2016 est.)
78.8% of GDP (2017 est.)

81.2% of GDP (2016 est.)

note: data cover only what the United States Treasury denotes as "Debt Held by the Public," which includes all debt instruments issued by the Treasury that are owned by non-US Government entities; the data include Treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data exclude debt issued by individual US states, as well as intragovernmental debt; intragovernmental debt consists of Treasury borrowings from surpluses in the trusts for Federal Social Security, Federal Employees, Hospital and Supplemental Medical Insurance (Medicare), Disability and Unemployment, and several other smaller trusts; if data for intragovernment debt were added, "gross debt" would increase by about one-third of GDP
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold$175.3 billion (31 December 2017 est.)

$178.4 billion (31 December 2016 est.)

note: Mexico also maintains access to an $88 million Flexible Credit Line with the IMF
$123.3 billion (31 December 2017 est.)

$117.6 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
Current Account Balance-$4.351 billion (2019 est.)

-$25.415 billion (2018 est.)
-$480.225 billion (2019 est.)

-$449.694 billion (2018 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate)$1,269,956,000,000 (2019 est.)$21,433,228,000,000 (2019 est.)
Credit ratingsFitch rating: BBB- (2020)

Moody's rating: Baa1 (2020)

Standard & Poors rating: BBB (2020)
Fitch rating: AAA (1994)

Moody's rating: Aaa (1949)

Standard & Poors rating: AA+ (2011)
Ease of Doing Business Index scoresOverall score: 72.4 (2020)

Starting a Business score: 86.1 (2020)

Trading score: 82.1 (2020)

Enforcement score: 67 (2020)
Overall score: 84 (2020)

Starting a Business score: 91.6 (2020)

Trading score: 92 (2020)

Enforcement score: 73.4 (2020)
Taxes and other revenues22.7% (of GDP) (2017 est.)17% (of GDP) (2017 est.)

note: excludes contributions for social security and other programs; if social contributions were added, taxes and other revenues would amount to approximately 22% of GDP
Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-)-1.1% (of GDP) (2017 est.)-3.4% (of GDP) (2017 est.)
Unemployment, youth ages 15-24total: 7.2%

male: 6.7%

female: 8% (2019 est.)
total: 14.9%

male: 15%

female: 14.8% (2020 est.)
GDP - composition, by end usehousehold consumption: 67% (2017 est.)

government consumption: 11.8% (2017 est.)

investment in fixed capital: 22.3% (2017 est.)

investment in inventories: 0.8% (2017 est.)

exports of goods and services: 37.8% (2017 est.)

imports of goods and services: -39.7% (2017 est.)
household consumption: 68.4% (2017 est.)

government consumption: 17.3% (2017 est.)

investment in fixed capital: 17.2% (2017 est.)

investment in inventories: 0.1% (2017 est.)

exports of goods and services: 12.1% (2017 est.)

imports of goods and services: -15% (2017 est.)
Gross national saving23.7% of GDP (2019 est.)

23.7% of GDP (2018 est.)

23.2% of GDP (2017 est.)
18.7% of GDP (2019 est.)

18.6% of GDP (2018 est.)

18.6% of GDP (2017 est.)

Source: CIA Factbook