MEXICO: Everything Up

Mexico's government, presiding happily over a two-year-old boom, had fresh facts last week to justify bullish predictions for the years ahead. Items:

¶ The Treasury announced a 195,5 surplus of 676 million pesos (about $55 million), the largest in Mexico's history. The nest egg was piled up mainly by a 37% increase in government income—comfortably ahead of the 30% rise in government spending.

¶Finance Minister Antonio Carrillo Flores reported that Mexico's dollar balance now stands at $431 million and is still rising. Metals, coffee and tourism led the way as dollar earners, and just since September the balance jumped $20 million.

¶The U.S. Export-Import Bank authorized a $50 million development loan, its first to Mexico in three years. Most of the money will go for rehabilitation of railroads and for expansion of the Altos Hornos steel mill.

¶Carrillo Flores looks forward to another, perhaps more modest surplus in the current fiscal year, and also foresees a continuing rise in dollar balance for the rest of 1956. Next year, he predicts, both surplus and dollar credit will level off under the impact of increased spending for imports. Meanwhile, Mexico's main continuing problem will be a nagging inflation, still pushing the cost of living up at the rate of 9% a year.