Introduction

Abstract

In August 1982, Mexico, by then the largest oil producer in Latin America, ran out of foreign exchange. Initially the Mexican government announced a ninety-day moratorium on repayment of the principal due on its external public debt. Soon the moratorium was extended into 1983, and Mexico was forced into a series of drastic remedial measures: severe devaluation, unprecedented exchange controls, an ‘unthinkable’ nationalisation of the private banks and, of course, an emergency agreement with the IMF.