Mexico

Mexico is a country located in North America. Over the past two years, as part of a broad Pact, the government of Mexico (GoM) has undertaken significant reforms regarding financial regulations, taxation, anti-trust, energy, and telecommunications. By the end of 2014, the GoM began implementing a number of constitutional amendments intended to encourage foreign investment, activate competition, as well as increase the country's tax base. Despite the government's projections for economic growth exceeding 3 percent, Mexico closed 2014 at a more modest 2.1 percent, although this was an improvement over 2013's 1.1 percent growth. While economic growth in Mexico typically slows during the first year of a new administration, weakness in the U. S. economy - which consumes more than 80 percent of Mexico's exports - also contributed to the slowdown. The most significant changes in Mexico's investment outlook have taken place in the energy and telecommunications sectors. Prior to constitutional reform, the state-controlled oil company, Pemex, had a monopoly on all hydrocarbon activity in the country. New legislation has opened this sector by allowing PEMEX to partner with domestic and international private sector firms and some of the country's oil fields are now being opened to outside exploration and development. In telecommunications, reforms are intended to improve competition and diminish concentration in the sector through the creation of a new, constitutionally autonomous regulator. This regulator is empowered to order divestitures, enforce regulations, and apply targeted sanctions to companies it sees as dominant in the market. In early 2014 legislation that describes the process of implementation was approved and providing more specific regulations governing the reforms to the energy, anti-trust, and telecommunications sectors. The government predicts that in 2015 the economy will improve and the Ministry of Finance has estimated annual GDP growth of between 3.2 percent and 4.2 percent for the year.