Mexico’s economic system is based on a mixed economy. This model combines elements of the market economy and the planned economy. That is, there is a private sector composed of individuals and companies that make free decisions looking for their own interests and a public sector where the State decides how to produce and distribute some goods and services of the economy.

In this way, both types of economic systems coexist in Mexico without one dominating the other, unlike countries such as China, where authoritarianism prevails over the free market.

In Mexico, this balance is regulated by the Constitution, where the rules and operation of its economic activities are established through public, private and social law. For example, private property is regulated by the Constitution.

It could be said that Mexico’s economic system is composed of a series of institutions, markets, laws, agreements, incentives, sectors, coordination mechanisms, and property rights.

Main characteristics of the economic system of Mexico

• Mixed economic system: market economy and planned economy.
• There are private companies and public companies such as PEMEX.
• A productive system focused on exports.
• An economy composed of 3 large economic sectors.
• Private property.

Roots of the Mexican economic system

Mexico’s current economic system is partly the result of the influence that several international institutions have had in the country. These include the WB, the IMF, the OECD, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the WTO through policy recommendations and conditionalities.

This is especially true since the crisis of 1982, the starting point of the establishment of multiple neoliberal policies. These policies sought fiscal consolidation, macroeconomic stabilization, and external balance through privatizations, free trade agreements, labor flexibility, etc.

Conclusion on the economic system of Mexico

The Mexican economy is governed by an economic system that owes much of its current characteristics to the restructuring that the economy has had since the 1980s. Currently, the country has a mixed system that combines elements of a planned economic system and a market economy.