Word: pesos
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sign that the P.R.I. was running scared, and with reason. The U.S.'s populous (72 million) and oil-rich southern neighbor is in the throes of a profound economic and social crisis. Inflation is running at an annual rate of about 60%, and last February the Mexican peso suffered a 40% devaluation. The country's current foreign debt is about $52 billion, among the highest in the Third World. Nervous investors have pulled some $6 billion of their capital out of the country in the past year. Government expenditures ate up 48% of Mexico's gross domestic...
...desperation, Lopez Portillo devalued the peso in February. Then, victimized by his own indecisiveness and the pressures of the P.R.I.'s political machine, he was unable to hold firm on a wage freeze required to reap the anti-inflationary benefits of the devaluation. Within weeks, all government employees were given a 30% wage hike, and the government "recommended" that private-sector employers grant their workers increases of 10%, 20% or 30% "to restore purchasing power." In a single stroke, Lopez Portillo had wiped out most of the gains of the devaluation that had shaken his administration-and lost much...
...huge, five-house compound that the outgoing President is building for his family on a hill overlooking the capital. Cynics have labeled the complex the "dog hill," a reference "to a Lopez Portillo remark that he would "fight like a dog" to defend the shrinking value of the Mexican peso...
...same time, the Buenos Aires government announced a series of austerity measures designed to bolster the country's wartime economy during a prolonged conflict. The Argentine peso was devalued by 17% to boost exports, while a 7% tax was announced on important goods sold abroad, to help pay for the war effort. Additional taxes went into effect for gasoline, cigarettes and liquor...
...governments, for different reasons, saw a pressing need for success. Mrs. Thatcher, her position at home strengthened by an improving economic outlook, had gone all out for restored possession of the Falklands as a precondition to any further discussion of sovereignty. General Galtieri, with inflation rising at 147%, the peso at 11,300 to the dollar (official rate) and serious internal discontent, had so far whipped up national sentiment as to have pasted himself into a corner. There were others at hand, quite prepared to oust him if his venture failed. Among the admirals were men of much more fascist...