Mexico Budget Boosts Social Spending

About $101 billion, or 43 percent of outlays, will go to fund social programs, Mexican Treasury Secretary Agustin Carstens said.

The budget "will be a tool that will allow the Mexican state to significantly increase public spending to help those who have the least," President Felipe Calderon said.

The congress passed the plan late Monday by a vote of 449 to 6, with three abstentions.

Mexico's government is forecasting economic growth of 3.7 percent in 2008. It attributes 0.2 percentage point of that growth to a recently approved tax reform, which Carstens said will bring additional revenue and bolster economy in the face of a slowdown in the U.S.

High oil prices and new tax regulations have made next year's budget the largest in Mexico's history -- a fact that will "induce greater economic activity in the country," Carstens said.