High concentration in Mexico

Mexico City.—Even if Mexico has opened widely to trade and foreign investment is stronger than in the United States, there are more obstacles here to competition in certain sectors, according to an analysis from the Research Center for Development, Centro de Investigacion para el Desarrollo (CIDAC). The document “How open is Mexican economy actually?” points-out that at sectors such as petroleum, electric power, telecommunications and the media, Mexico has 5 times more concentration than the United States. The document, based on the Economic Openness Index prepared by Jaime Serra Puche, says that, taking as measure Herfindahl Index (where 0 represents perfect competition and 10,000 absolute monopoly), in telecommunications Mexico has 6,382 points, against 3,043 of the USA. As far as media is concerned, Mexico has 5,994 points, while the United States have 1,059.