It is becoming increasingly possible that 2011 will be the year that Mexico truly began opening its closed economy. Though political reform seems to have failed and efforts to centralize Mexico’s many police forces stalled, the political system has taken important steps in the last several months that could establish a more open and level economic playing field. What is most interesting, and perhaps hopeful, about these developments is that all three branches of government are throwing their weight behind freer markets.

Washington – Mexico's economy has rebounded from the global economic crisis and will grow about 4.5 percent this year, while "inflation has remained benign," the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, said Monday.

"After a sharp contraction in 2009, growth in Mexico picked up strongly in 2010, reaching 5.4 percent," the IMF said at the end of a meeting with Mexican officials.

"Robust growth has brought output back to pre-crisis levels, with manufacturing exports leading the recovery and the rebound in domestic demand helping sustain the momentum," the IMF said.

The developing world has, for the first time, outstripped richer economies in providing new investment in the renewable energy sector, according to a report.

'Latin America has emerged in the last year or two as one of the sharpest growing markets for renewable power worldwide,' McCrone said.

Excluding Brazil, Mexico took the lead in Latin America, with an almost 350 per cent increase in 2010.

'The huge potential for expansion of this type of energy [in Latin America] has had a direct impact on investment in the sector, as well as on R&D in public universities and other research centres that also work with government funds,' Victorio Oxilia, executive secretary of the Latin American Energy Organization, told SciDev.Net.