Maquiladoras buy only about two percent of their components in Mexico.
About 40 percent of the new 1994 manufacturing investment was in vehicles. Mexico's GDP shrank seven percent in 1995, and inflation was 53 percent. Mexico denied rumors that it was going to raise its 15 percent value-added tax. Borrowers of up to one-third of the loans made in Mexico are not paying interest on their loans. The Mexican government expects to phase out subsidies in 1996 that keep the price of tortillas at about 1.10 pesos per kilogram, or about seven US cents per pound.