ABSTRACT
The most important change registered in the 1960s was that the growth process essentially based on industrialization was concentrated now on the production of consumer durables rather than consumer non-durable goods. The deterioration of the situation, in the early 1970s, accentuated by higher fiscal deficits and the growing opening of the economy to the outside world, foreshadowed the decline of the economic growth rates obviously related also to the similar trends observed throughout the world economy. The magnitude and characteristics of the problems to be solved called for a government's response at all levels – economic, social and political. A considerable reduction in public expenditure in 1974 brought at once a decline in growth rates as the Mexican economy marched inexorably towards what looked like a new crisis. The most important of these was the National Development Plan for 1976-1982, the heart of which was the petroleum sector development programme.
