The problem of measuring the fiscal deficit in México Evolution, concepts and magnitudes

Abstract

The measure of budget deficit has experienced very important semantic transformations as new economic phenomenon have been presented in economic life in México. In this way, we have gone –since origins of the Independent State of New Spain- from the concept of budget deficit to the concepts of economic deficit, operational deficit and financial deficit in the seventies and eighties decades, to get to the concepts of primary economic deficit, financial requirements of public sector and its historics balances nowadays. Searching for a measure indicating the financial position of the government and the public sector is a job that has required to get up to the new economic phenomenon. The empirical evidence documented here shows that depending on the aspects that you wish to highlight in relation to the financial position of the Mexican public sector, will be the selected indicator.