Mexico Extends Inflation Fight
President Carlos Salinas de Gortari said Monday night that he will extend a year-old inflation-fighting program through the first half of 1989, institute a gradual peso devaluation and allow an 8% pay increase for workers.
The increase will be the workers’ first in nine months.
In a Monday night ceremony with business and labor leaders, Salinas also gave the program a new name: the Economic Growth and Stability Pact.
Former President Miguel de la Madrid implemented the plan, then known as the Economic Solidarity Pact, in December, 1987, as inflation reached a record annual rate of 159.2%.
Inflation reached 48.6% for the first 11 months of 1988, according to the central bank.
The central features of the plan included freezes enacted Feb. 29 on the peso currency exchange rate and on prices for government-regulated goods and services.
The government also froze the daily minimum wage, which in the Federal District of Mexico City amounted to about $3.70.
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