Yucatan's Economy

The challenge that every administration faces in Yucatán is related to combating extreme poverty that affects the whole southeast region. At the closing of 2006, the governor of the state, Patricio Patron, declared that the growth of the Yucatán economy surpassed the national medium, which proves that Yucatan today is a safe place to invest and is on its way to a better economy.  

Over 60% of PIB is composed of donations of the common services, social and personal, tourism and financial services, insurance and immobile activities, according to the 2006 edition of National Systems of Mexico, published by the INEGI.

The state government has put into action several mechanisms that have resulted in an increase in the opening of mercantile societies (in 2006 1,114 were opened, representing an initial capital accumulating over 650 million pesos); and in the period of 1994-2006, the foreign investments reached 463 million dollars. The unemployment statistic in the last 2006 trimester was only 1.9%.

In exterior commerce, the craft works made up 75% of total exportation in 2006. The Yucatan craft production is distinguished by the high quality of its labor. Yucatan offers a large portfolio of 1,500 things for exportation, such as furniture, honey and pollen, crafts, chocolates, foods including soskil, biodegradable fiber which is attractive to first world societies including everyday household items such as dish sponges. .

Today, service-based companies account for about 23 percent of the state’s economy. Trade activities (agribusiness, textile and apparel production, furniture manufacturing, etc.) represent about 21 percent of the economy, followed by finance and insurance at 19 percent, manufacturing at 13 percent, transportation and communications at 10 percent, agriculture and livestock at 7 percent, construction at 6 percent and mining at 1 percent.

Most of the northern half, although covered with only a few inches of subsoil, is one of the most important henequen-raising regions of the world; the uncultivated area is under a dense growth of scrub, cactus, sapote wood, and mangrove thickets. Subsistence crops, tobacco, and cotton also are grown. Magnificent forests of tropical hardwoods in Campeche, Petén, and Belize provide the basis for a lumber industry. This area teems with tropical life, including the jaguar, the armadillo, the iguana, and the Yucatán turkey. Fishing is important along the Yucatán coast. Many of the peninsula's fine beaches and archaeological sites have been developed for tourism, which is a significant part of the peninsula's economy. By the early years of the 21st cent, resort development in Mexico on the peninsula's east coast was extensive, especially at Cancún and to its south along c.60-mi (100 km) stretch of beach popularly known as the Mayan Riviera. Yucatán also possesses large oil deposits, and Mexico in particular has developed a substantial oil industry on the peninsula.