Mexican legislators voted on Friday to keep the budget deficit at 0.30 percent of gross domestic product next year, rejecting the government's proposal that it be reduced to about 0.14 percent.
President Vicente Fox's government had presented an austere plan as part of its efforts to lead the country to a balanced budget in 2006. The deficit is expected to come in at 0.30 percent this year and Fox hoped to cut it further.
But, in approving the revenue section of the 2005 budget, opposition parties in the lower house of Congress decided to hold the deficit steady. They raised projected price for Mexican oil next year in order to make space for more spending.
The government had forecast the price of Mexican oil at an average of $23 per barrel in 2005, a conservative figure given high world oil prices.
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