MAR 2007 VOL. 2

Foreign Exchange

If you are still thinking of Mexico as an emerging market, an economic appendage top the United States, maybe it’s time to rethink your thinking. Mexico is on its way to becoming the 5th largest economy in the world in the next 25 years. That will put  Mexico just behind Japan, and ahead of Russia, Brazil and Germany, according to projections by Goldman Sachs and the International Monetary Fund.

Mexico’s emergence as a major player in the global economy is the thesis for a new report by Jones Lang LaSalle, in which the brokerage recommends additional investment in Mexico. According to JLL, Mexico has investment grade commercial real estate valued at $200 billion. Until recently, most of those assets have been in the hands of local developers and occupiers, but in recent years, an influx of foreign capital has arrived. According to JLL, in 2005 Mexico was the 7th largest destination for trans-border real estate investment.