Spare a thought for Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto. After engineering an ambitious reformist pact among Mexico’s three major political parties, he whirled through his first year in office rewriting laws on everything from energy to television and education to elections. Yet Mexico’s economic performance in 2013 was disappointing, and Mexico’s businesses and foreign investors aren’t exactly exuberant. It’s enough to damp a reformer’s spirits.

These are early days for Pena Nieto’s new policies, and the reforms he’s achieved so far will take time to show results. A little patience is justified — but not too much. There’s a lot of unfinished business.

The achievements of the past year are real. Most notably, Pena Nieto shattered a 75-year taboo on foreign investment in Mexico’s oil fields with legislation passed this month. He opened Mexico’s airwaves to more competition overseen by a tougher regulator. A new tax law has reduced Mexico’s reliance on oil revenue. More people can get bank loans. Mexico’s teachers are being held to account, and the corrupt leader of their powerful union has been jailed.

Yet in 2013, says the International Monetary Fund, Mexico’s gross domestic product grew by only 1.2 percent, down from 3.6 percent a year ago. Foreign investors were skittish, with portfolio investment dropping sharply from the previous year. Mexico’s peso bonds headed for their biggest yearly decline since 2008. Consumer and business confidence have sagged. Only in December, with the passage of energy reform and Standard & Poor’s ensuing decision to upgrade Mexico’s debt rating, have expectations begun to improve.

via Mexico’s Amazing Year – Bloomberg.