Facts about the Mexican middle class

1. The ranks of the middle class — defined as $7,200 to $50,000 a year — have risen to about ten million families.

2. That is almost 40 percent of all Mexican households.

3. The country is in the middle of a housing boom.  560,000 new homes were built last year — a record — and 750,000 are expected for 2006.

4. Annual inflation is down to about three percent and over the last two years interest rates on 20-year mortgages have fallen from 18 to 8 percent.

5. Sales of home appliances have tripled in the last ten years.

Those facts are from Business Week, 13 March edition.  Each time I visit Mexico, the more I am convinced that country has turned the corner.  Here is an earlier post on undervalued nations.  See here also.