Despite promises about the benefits of NAFTA, the average Mexican did not experience these benefits after the implementation of the agreement.  During the first two months of 1995, interest rates rose from 35% to 59%, reportedly causing more than $2.5 billion in investments to flee the country.  The stock market dropped 24%, hundreds of companies closed down, and more than 250,000 Mexicans lost their jobs.  Since the devaluation, the peso has continued to decline, moving from 3.1 pesos to the dollar in January 1994 to 8.2 pesos currently.
 
        Workers in the United States did not see the benefits of the trade agreement either.  The first year and a half of NAFTA saw the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico grow by $4 billion and nearly 80,000 U.S. workers lost their jobs.  Workers to the south were no better off: wages in Mexico declined by 40%-50%.  While the cost of living rose by 80%, salaries increased by only 30%.  The inflation rate in 1996 rose to over 51% and 20,000 small and medium sized businesses went bankrupt due to increased competition from multinational corporations. As of 1996, more than 2.3 million Mexican people had lost their jobs since the implementation of NAFTA.   Prices of basic necessities such as gasoline, electricity and tortillas rose at an unprecedented rate.  One year after the crash of the peso, three-quarters of Mexican families could no longer afford the basic foods and services required to keep them above the poverty line (Garcia).