Of course, these figures hide significant variations within different industries. Agriculture, leather working, and the primary metal industries are particularly reliant on the Mexican market. Fourteen of the twenty two industry groups with Mexican exports posted solid gains. The bust, however, hit equally hard. Figure 1 documents this fall.
Most experts expect Mexico to experience a prolonged economic slump.
The overall export environment will continue to be tough. As explained in the accompanying article on the peso collapse by Professor Zeitz, much of the impact is yet to be felt. We do, however, have several clues for determining how particular Tennessee industries will be affected. Table 1 displays them. Two obvious clues are how responsive industries have been to the previous events in Mexico.