Here is a two year chart of Peso v US Dollar. Two years ago it took 15 pesos to buy a dollar and now it's only 12.19. Most recently, the planned printing of $600 billion USD to buy bonds has sent the dollar lower from about 13 to the current level. Surely could move lower and test the 10 level over a couple of years. That would especially be true IF the drug situation was viewed as getting better. USDMXN=X Basic Chart | USD/MXN Stock - Yahoo! Finance=
Dougout, I relate more to how many pesos I can get for $1 US. This number is less than the numbers you quote, the difference basically being the commission or profit to the exchange house, bank or whomever. I was lucky enough to grab some of those $15 pesos per $1 US. Please note that that was the highest exchange rate since the revaluation back in the early 90's when it went to about $3 Pesos = $1 US. Check out this info all the way back to 1986. Note the annual inflation rate from then till early 1993. http://www.banamex.com.mx/esp/finanzas/historicos/dolar/historico_dolar.jsp You can also see Feb, 2009 when the highest post revaluation end of month closing occurred. That was the time where I actually was buying at $15 to $1. Getting some every day it seemed, all the way up, at the top, and part way back down till I had a nice little stockpile of pesos. Ah, the good old days. Today I was buying things at Costco and getting $12.10 per $1 US, paying in $50's and getting my change in pesos. It is getting harder and harder NOT to use ATM's and watching the Casas de Cambio making their spread bigger since they are the only game in town these days, other than the Walmarts and Costco type stores. Thanks for the great info and getting me reflecting.
Yeah.. I made some posts a while back about my own experiences with the peso... essentially the peso rapidly devalued around 20-30% against the dollar, and the stores here pretty much all raised their prices 30-40% or more across the board to (more than) compensate.. using the "weak peso" as their justification.. and surprise, surprise, they've shown no interest in lowing prices in the slightest even though the peso has been back to it's "normal" values for a while now... so the net result was that the cost of living for most people has gone up noticeably, while salaries have stayed the same or in many cases gone down due to lackluster tourism... so my point is for your average Cancunense (and probably Mexicans in general) living on pesos... the "stronger" it gets the worse off they are since the stores are not adjusting their prices accordingly... at least that's my take on it judging by my increasing expenditures year over year.
Life and T.J. Love your perspectives. In Feb '09 I felt like a kid in a candy store exchanging dollars. $100 US got me $1500 pesos. Much better than the $950 I got years earlier. Hoping to visit soon! :ernaehrung005:
Dougout, When I contracted to buy my place the rate was $9.70. It took a while for a paid off mortgage to be officially satisfied (as we would do in the states) so, even though I had possession, and no more rent, I had not parted with the biggest chunk of the change. When that finally happened, the rate was $11.20 or so. Since I was converting dollars to pesos it was a nice little savings. Then, the seller asked for some in dollars so we split the difference on buy/sell rate, which ended up being another little bonus for me. Glad you were able to get in at the top of the market. I got $15.00 but it went a bit higher that day, $15.05 or something, then headed back down, but it was a great run for those of us who live off foreign assets.
