What is Vicente Fox’s economic legacy?
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What is Vicente Fox’s economic legacy?
TEXT OF STORY
MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: Tonight the President of Mexico will deliver his final State of the Nation address. Vicente Fox will try to convince the nation that Mexico is better off now than before he became President. What is the economic legacy of Vicente Fox? Franc Contreras takes a look.
FRANC CONTRERAS: In the weeks leading up today’s speech, the Mexican government has been releasing figures indicating the economy is strong.
GDP is up more than 5% and employment is rebounding.
Francisco Gil Diaz is Mexico’s Treasury secretary. He says proof of Mexico’s strong economy can be found in currency markets that have kept the value of the peso relatively stable over the past several months.
Economist Rogelio Ramirez De La O is the economic advisor to the leftist presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Ramirez is skeptical of Fox’s sunny economic picture.
ROGELIO RAMIREZ DE LA O: He leaves a country plagued by structural problems which are going to be extremely difficult to correct.
Ramirez says poverty is chief among those problems Ffox will leave his successor.
The Fox government’s own figures show that more than 40 million people live under the poverty line.
In Mexico City, I’m Franc Contreras for Marketplace.
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