Mexico

Oil is a case in point. Pemex, the state-owned oil company, occupies a unique place in Mexican hearts: each year on March 18, school children celebrate with theatre and speeches the 1938 decision to nationalise the industry. Yet oil makes up an un-healthy proportion of government income - more than one-third - and production has plummeted, from about 3.4m barrels a day in 2004 to just 2.6m b/d as lack of investment and of foreign know-how made themselves felt. In private, Pemex officials admit Mr Calderón's reforms, meant to give the company more flexibility to work with the private sector, are too meek to turn things around.