Mexico is an upper-middle-income country whose economy has grown steadily but much more slowly than that of other emerging-market countries. Mexico was hard hit by the global economic crisis because of its dependence on oil exports, trade with and remittances from the United States. Mexico‘s GDP actually fell by 6.5 percent in 2009, but it is expected to rebound and resume a steady but slow rate of growth.

Over 60 percent of Mexico‘s extremely poor people reside in rural areas, and most are dependent upon subsistence agriculture. By international standards, agricultural productivity in Mexico is low. Agricultural growth has largely been concentrated in the commercial farming sector, and the rural poor have generally not experienced improvements in agricultural productivity.

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