Word: beteta
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Latin American-or indeed any-standards, the Mexican peso has been a remarkably stable currency. Since 1954 its exchange rate has not budged from 12.5 to the dollar. Mexicans were understandably astonished, therefore, when Treasury Minister Mario Ramon Beteta suddenly appeared on their TV screens last week to announce a change. From now on, he said, the peso would float freely-in other words, its value would be determined by supply and demand...
...Though Beteta was careful to avoid saying so, the move amounts to a massive devaluation. By week's end the exchange rate sank below 20 pesos to the dollar. That might lure many more American tourists to sample the delights of Acapulco or poke around the Aztec ruins near Mexico City, since their dollars will buy more in Mexico. But it will also hurt the many other Americans who have poured investment money into Mexico, seeking interest rates of 12% or more...
Perhaps, but the peso's sharp devaluation could also do harm in Mexico. Prices of the $6.6 billion worth of consumer and capital goods that Mexico imports will rise sharply in peso terms. In the wake of Beteta's announcement, many sales clerks worked until midnight changing the price tags on merchandise. At the Puerta de Liverpool department store, for example, refrigerators went up 20% overnight, color TV sets more than 30%. To ease the burden, Echeverría has already promised raises for workers, civil servants and pensioners-a generous but inflationary move...