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Old Country of Young People

Extensive oil discoveries and increasing industrialization have caused a massive shift of people from countryside to towns and cities - about 65 per cent now live in urban areas one-fifth of them in or around the capital The population of GUADALAJARA city has topped 2 million; M0NTERREY and PUEBLA have both passed the million mark. Many millions have simply exchanged rural poverty for urban deprivation, but despite low incomes and poor housing they are in many ways better off: most houses have electricity, most children go to school, and social services and health care are more efficient. The great oil finds were on the east coast around the city of TAMPICO and in the state of TABASCO and offshore in the Gulf itself. Mexico became one of the world's major oil producers, with reserves second only to those of Saudi Arabia. However, great industrial and public service projects financed by investments and foreign loans geared to the oil boom turned sour in the late 1970s and early 1980s as oil prices began falling and interest rates soared. In 1982, inflation zoomed from a previously 'normal' 10 to 20 per cent to 99 per cent, and foreign debts equalled a staggering 82 per cent of the gross national product. In a bid to stem the tide of cash pouring out of the country, the government nationalized Mexico's 54 private hanks. Further economic measures reduced inflation to 56 per cent by 1984. Tightened controls on spending and some international financial diplomacy have won a breathing space for interest repayments.

However, Mexico is among many nations to suffer, and is better equipped than most to win through today's economic turbulence. Industrial output in 1981 included over 7 million tonnes of steel, about 20 million tonnes of cement and 600 000 motor vehicles: the country still turns out most of its own 'consumer durables'. Oil production in 1984 was 2.76 million barrels a day and Mexico remains, as it' has been for centuries, one of the leading producers of silver - nearly 2000 tonnes a year from 70 mines. Copper and sulphur are also mined in large quantities. And despite industrialization, agriculture continues to be a major factor in the economy, though now employing only about one-third of the workforce.

Next: Landless Farmers