best performers in the emerging world. 8 also, mexico ’ s creditworthiness, as measured by credit ratings assigned to government securities, has continued to ameliorate over the last couple of years, to levels above most emes, while still maintaining a positive outlook amidst a difficult external environment. to conclude, i would like to emphasize that, notwithstanding major economic shocks, the mexican economy has shown a relatively good performance, and it is reasonable to expect a gradual strengthening of economic activity in the next couple of years. in fact, banco de mexico ’ s forecasts currently place real output growth at 2. 5 – 3. 5 % in 2016, and at 3. 0 – 4. 0 % in 2017. in addition, following an ambitious program of structural reform, mexico is one of the few emes where an increase in potential gdp is expected. meanwhile, cpi inflation is projected to rise moderately from the current minima to levels around the 3 percent target throughout both 2016 and 2017. it should also be noted that with the recent increase in the federal funds rate signaling confidence of us authorities in the economic outlook, mexico is likely to benefit in coming years from close links to that economy. however, external conditions for mexico will probably remain very difficult. not only is the world economy moving across a particularly complicated juncture, but major structural challenges need to be overcome. therefore, it will be essential to continue to implement a prudent and flexible monetary policy ; adhere strictly to the announced strengthening of public finances ; pursue the overall stability of the financial system, while promptly addressing emerging risks ; and maintain the structural reform momentum, by ensuring that the policies underway are timely and efficiently implemented, as well as by adopting any additional measures required to achieve a rate of potential growth in accordance with the country ’ s needs. see organisation for economic co - operation and development ( 2015 ) : oecd economic surveys : mexico, january. see world bank ( 2015 ) : doing business 2016 : measuring regulatory quality and efficiency, october. bis central bankers ’ speeches

. this includes : first, as i already noted, a credible monetary policy. in the context of the inflation targeting framework, the implementation of monetary policy in mexico has focused on achieving an efficient convergence to the 3 percent target, i. e. at the lowest possible cost in terms of economic activity. on the basis of this rationale, banco de mexico responded to internal and external developments by reducing its benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points from march 2013 to june 2014. headline inflation fell from 4. 3 percent in march 2013 to 2. 1 percent at the end of 2015. in other words, the monetary policy stance allowed to simultaneously reduce the inflation rate and support economic activity. on december 17, 2015, banco de mexico ’ s board decided to increase the target for the overnight interbank rate by 25 basis points to a level of 3. 25 percent. the presence of record low levels of inflation, stable medium - and long - term inflation expectations, and the anticipation of a negative output gap during the period of influence of monetary policy supported an according to imf data through october 2015 presented in its world economic outlook, mexico ’ s real gdp growth forecast for 2015 has been revised downwards by 1. 7 percent points ( p. p. ) since it was initially projected at 4. 0 percent in april 2010. in contrast, the median revisions on growth forecasts for other emes ( namely brazil, chile, china, colombia, hungary, india, indonesia, malaysia, peru, poland, russia, south africa, thailand and turkey ) amount to – 2. 3 p. p., while growth for the latin american and caribbean region ( lac ) has been revised downwards by 4. 2 p. p. for the 2016 forecasts, the corresponding revisions ( with respect to the initial estimate in april 2011 ) are : – 0. 4 p. p. for mexico, – 1. 8 p. p. for other emes, and – 3. 1 p. p. for lac. bis central bankers ’ speeches unchanged monetary policy stance. however, with the increase in interest rates in the us, such a strategy would have implied costs well above the potential benefits. in particular, it carried the risk of disorderly capital outflows and an additional depreciation of the peso. this would have endangered both the inflation target and financial stability. it is also important to take into consideration that, notwithstanding the interest rate increase, monetary conditions in mexico remain very lax, due to