Topic - Money, Banking & Finance

On January 1st 2010, Mexico’s national sales tax rate, commonly referred to by its initials IVA (Impuesto al Valor Agregado), or Value Added Tax, rose by one percent, to 16%.
Price tags at retail stores across Mexico include this sum, so the amount you see advertised for an item is the amount you pay; distinct from […]

Three of the world’s major rating agencies have downgraded Mexico’s credit score.
Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s cited falling oil production, the financial crisis, inflexible fiscal infrastructure—read inadequate tax collection—and a continued over-dependency on oil revenues as the key issues considered in their decision to downgrade Mexico’s global credit rating.
The Mexican peso and the country’s […]

If you’re living or working in Mexico, planning to retire here, or planning to invest in Mexican real estate, the likelihood is that you will need to open an account at a Mexican bank to facilitate your daily financial transactions in Mexico as well as manage money transfers between foreign accounts and your Mexican bank […]

Mexperience readers of old will know that we have always encouraged them to bring their foreign currency and exchange it in Mexico, as the deals on offer here provide much better value than exchanging currency over the counter in the USA, Canada and Europe.
Mexico City’s international airport has, forever it seems, been the country’s ‘bellwether’ […]

We’ve been writing about the devaluation of Mexico’s peso in recent articles as well as some of the corollaries associated with the recent falls in value of the Mexican currency.
In periods when the peso/dollar exchange market becomes disorderly, some sectors of Mexico’s economy begin to switch pricing of their goods and services from Mexican pesos […]

Mexico’s currency, the peso, is trading in the open market well-above $15 pesos to the US dollar for a third consecutive day and, for the first time, the inter-bank rate breached the hitherto uncharted $15 level, selling at $15.07.
Retail currency exchange houses are now selling US dollars for sums well over fifteen pesos, and people […]

Like every country in the world, counterfeit banknotes circulate in Mexico.  Notwithstanding the prospect of a twelve-year prison sentence for counterfeiting money, some people still chance their luck by printing rogue notes and attempting to pass them off as genuine.
Trouble may arise if you innocently offer a counterfeit note for payment and have the bill checked, […]

We’ve written recently about currency movements, and in particular about how the low value of the US Dollar last summer was making Europe less attractive to travelers earning in Dollars.
In the same breath, we also noted that currency markets were notoriously hard to predict.
Today, the US Dollar has made a boisterous comeback on the world […]

Although visitors to Mexico are often used to tipping at places like restaurants and bars, in Mexico, tipping extends far beyond eating and drinking establishments.
Tipping is deeply engrained into the social fabric here.  Giving small tips is widely practised and, in most instances, expected in return for good service.
A previously published blog article, Tipping in […]

What a difference a year can make.
In the fall of 2007 and again in the spring of 2008, we were writing about how the fall in the value of the US dollar was making Europe expensive and Mexico good value for American travelers.  Now, as traders liquidate assets world-wide, demand for dollars has surged, causing the US […]