Felipe Calderón, the Mexican president, announced sweeping cuts in the public administration on Tuesday that include the axing of three ministries.

Together with fiscal measures in the 2010 federal budget – which were due to be announced late Tuesday night – Mr Calderón predicted a total of 180bn pesos ($13.4bn, €9.3bn, £8.2bn) of additional resources would be generated. He said the new funds would amount to “some 1.4 per cent of gross domestic product”.