Stimulus-Averse Mexico Is an Investor Darling

It’s been decades since Mexico has posted growth rates worthy of an emerging-market tiger. Its performance during the commodities boom was middling compared with the rest of Latin America and trailed Brazil and Argentina. Yet Mexico is the standout now that its flashier peers are stumbling. Its economy is poised to grow 2.6 percent this year, according to a Bloomberg survey of 32 Wall Street analysts. That’s compared with what the International Monetary Fund projects will be a regional average of less than 1 percent. “Maybe it’s not as good as expected,” said Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in a June 11 interview, “but it’s better than other nations.”

That 2.6 percent forecast is about half the more than 5 percent annual growth Peña Nieto said Mexico could achieve in the medium term if Congress endorsed his proposals. His administration hasn’t come close to hitting its own growth targets since taking office at the end of 2012.