Mexico City - Despite the growth of the middle class during the time period of 2000-2010, Mexico cannot define itself as a "middle-class" country; instead, it is poor, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
By publicizing a research bulletin titled "Middle Classes in Mexico", the Institute chaired by Eduardo Sojo revealed that 55.08% of households--including 59.13% of Mexicans--live in precarious economic conditions that can be aggravated by any catastrophic event within the household, such as the sudden loss of principal breadwinner, illness or serious accident. The same precarious conditions can be triggered by an external phenomenon, such as an episode of hyperinflation or deep macroeconomic recession.
The situation is better for fewer: at least in the short to medium term, only 2.5% of households--representing 1.71% of the population--are assured of the economic resources, access to services to live in dignity, and other non-essential products and services for everyday life.
Middle Class
In the abyss between the lower and upper classes is the middle class, which grew in the first decade of the 21st century, but which is not the most representative of the country as a whole.
In 2010, 12.3 million households and 44 million people were classified as "middle-class". Three-quarters of this population are concentrated in urban areas. In percentage terms, 42.42% of households are in this category, including 39.16% of Mexicans.
The middle class was smaller in 2000, comprising 38.4% of households and 35.2% of the national population.
"This means that in the course of a decade the size of the middle class, whether accounted for in terms of households or persons, increased by four percentage points," clarified the INEGI.Currently, a middle-class household has at least a computer; it spends about $4,400 pesos [$344 USD] per quarter (at 2010 prices) for consumption of food and beverages outside the home.
Within the household, someone has a credit card and at least one family member works in the formal labor market [MV Note: INEGI - 60% of Mexicans work in the informal economy, which means they have no health or pension benefits]. Moreover, the household is headed by someone with at least a high school education and is married, thus forming a nuclear family of four people. Not only that, it's likely that those living in middle-class homes work in the private sector and that their children attend public schools.
According to the INEGI, it is noteworthy that these households rely more on loans from social or family resources than on a commercial bank loan for access to home ownership.
But it's not just home loans that are beyond the reach of the middle class, not to mention the lower class, which is the majority in the country.
According to the National Survey of Financial Inclusion (ENIF) 2012, users of formal credit represent 27.5% of the adult population in Mexico, which translates to only 19.3 million people. Instead, 23.7 million Mexicans (33.7%) prefer to finance themselves informally through family loans. This is the economic and uneven panorama of Mexican families. Gone is the rhetoric of the government of Felipe Calderón claiming that the country is "middle-class".
Also in the past is the rhetoric of then Finance Secretary Ernesto Cordero, who late in February of 2011 claimed that with income of 6,000 pesos [$469 USD] per month, families have credit for a home and a car, and also "given time to send their children to private school, and they are paying tuition." Words that days later, the "Dauphin" of the Calderón administration tried to correct.
The INEGI revealed the opposite to that official rhetoric. The situation is different, for the worse. Spanish original