Lessons from Mexico’s “Tequila Crisis” Can Help the Country Navigate Trump
Thirty years after the 1994 currency crisis, its legacy can prove useful as Mexico braces for U.S. tariffs.
MEXICO CITY — On December 20, 1994, the recently inaugurated Ernesto Zedillo administration in Mexico announced a 15% devaluation of the Mexican peso against the dollar, unleashing what soon would be known as the “Tequila Crisis.” The next year, Mexico’s economy contracted by a staggering 5.9%, while unemployment almost doubled, reaching 7.1%, its highest reading ever. The crisis left its mark on the rest of the 1990s in Mexico, badly damaging Zedillo’s popularity and contributing to the PRI’s loss of the presidency, for the first time in more than 70 years, in 2000. At...
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