Last Friday, when President Ernesto Ze-dillo gave his final state-of-the-union address to Mexico's Congress, he had much to be proud of. Back in 1994, he took over a country teetering on the brink of economic crisis, and scarred by political violence and guerrilla rebellion. On December 1st, he will hand over to Vicente Fox a country that differs for the better, in two fundamental ways. Not only has Mr Zedillo overseen Mexico's peaceful transition to democracy, with power passing to the opposition in the form of Mr Fox after seven decades of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (pri). But Mr Zedillo also passes on a booming economy: this year gdp is set to grow by 7%, its highest rate since 1981.
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