Mexican Peso - MXN

Originally from the Spanish dollar then into circulation in all the Spanish Empire of Asia and Latin America, the Mexican peso (which was a 8 reales coin – the sign $ was born and after it has been used by the American dollar) has been turned since its independence (1821) into the official currency of the Republic of Mexico (even if the first peso with the coat of arms of the Republic was issued in 1869).

The Mexican peso remained all along the XX century one of the more stable currencies in Latin America, but an hyperinflation appeared in the country after the oil shock in the 70s, as the Mexican external debt became important.

On January 1st, 1993 the central bank of Mexico put into circulation the new peso (MXN) to replace the old peso (MXP) on the basis 1 MXN = 1000 MXP, the term “new peso” was abandoned and replaced by “peso” in 1996.

The Mexican peso is nowadays among the 15 more negotiated currencies in the world, and since the end of the 90s its external value has for a long time fluctuated between USD/MXN = 9 and USD/MXN = 13.

Except when the dollar reappreciated in the first semester of 2006, a small bearish tendency of the cross ( and a concomitant appreciation of the peso against the dollar) was observed between the Fall of 2004 and August 2008, the USD/MXN parity fluctuated from 11.50 by the end of 2004 and USD/MXN = 9.91 in August 2008.

In the context of the stock-exchange and financial crisis of the Fall of 2008, we saw a fast and exclusive appreciation of the American dollar, the cross USD/MXN listed at USD/MXN = 13.22 on October 9th, 2008 (+33% in few weeks), then a higher of the USD/MXN = 15.50 reached on March 2009.

A small correction in favor of a reappreciation of the Mexican peso intervenes since the second trimester of 2009, as the cross had as always USD/MXN = 13.1561 at the beginning of November 2009, so an exchange value equivalent to the higher points of the whole period which preceded the increase of the US Dollar.