Mexican Social Security System In The Red

Mexico's social security system, the IMSS, reported a negative balance of 205 million pesos ($27.2 million) for 1995, going into the red for the first time in its 53-year history.

Moreover, according to IMSS director Genaro Borrego Estrada, the system is expected to spend 56.6 billion pesos ($7.5 billion) this year on public health and pensions, an increase of at least 18% over the figure for 1995, which had been a disastrous year due to high inflation and massive unemployment.

However Mexico's President, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, says that once it is reformed, "the IMSS will be placed in the vanguard of the world's security systems." he has also discounted fears that the system may be bankrupted, saying that the newly-revised social security law will guarantee its financial stability.