CONSUMPTION AND SPENDING

Mexico has enormous wealth disparities. The World Bank estimates that 45 million Mexicans live in poverty, surviving on less than $2 a day, and a quarter of them struggle in extreme poverty, coping with half that amount. There is little social mobility; the old Spanish families retain their hold on institutions. In the past, the wealthy did not generally pay taxes and often benefited from the large state machine. Tax evasion remains a serious problem.

Rural Amerindians are probably the most disadvantaged group. In the last decade, poverty has forced them into city slums to work in factories or maquiladoras, where conditions and pay are poor. The 1994 Chiapas rebellion was fed by demands for more land and more assistance in farming it. The flow of poor rural migrants to the US stems largely from the need to subsidize families back home.

From "The Financial Times World Desk Reference" © Dorling Kindersley 2004