Ms. Reyes is paid in Mexican pesos, a currency that has been losing value as the Fed, the
central bank of the United States, has signaled plans to raise interest rates this year.
“Every time the peso goes down, we can afford less and less,” Ms. Reyes said on a recent evening, as pale desert light gave way to chilly darkness.
“We use blankets,” Ms. Reyes said, “and what love we have.”
Peter S. Goodman reported from Ciudad Juárez, Keith Bradsher from Beijing and Neil Gough from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Across China, hundreds of millions of people who have plowed their savings into real
estate are vulnerable if too much money washes out at once and housing prices drop.
The episode became known as “the taper tantrum.”
“The effect of interest rate increases on emerging countries is surprisingly strong,” said Gary Clyde
Hufbauer, an international trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Rising interest rates in the United States are driving money out of many developing
countries, straining governments and pinching consumers around the globe.
Prices rose by 20 percent for almost everything in the last month.”
In Mexico, Francisca Hervis Reyes has no way to cut her own costs, beyond putting less food on the table.
Mexico’s central bank has been steadily lifting rates to protect its currency in the face of a possible trade war with the United States.