MEXICO CITY — Mexico unveiled a 1,000 peso bill last week, the largest denomination available.
The bill, equivalent to $87, will begin circulating Nov. 15. About 50 million will be put into circulation. Central bank officials said they created the note after noticing increased use of 200-peso and 500-peso bills.
"There's a growing appetite to pay with higher-denominated bills," Manuel Galan, the Bank of Mexico's director of programming, said Thursday. He added that the new notes will improve "efficiency in doing commercial transactions."
The amount of bills and coins in circulation is about 280 billion pesos ($24.5 billion.)
In recent weeks, the peso has strengthened against the U.S. dollar.
Two weeks ago, Mexico's central bankers said they don't expect inflation to begin declining until the second quarter of 2005, implying that further monetary tightening lies ahead. Inflation had spiked to an annual 5.4 percent rate by mid-October.
Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story.
The purple-and-green-hued bill will feature the likeness of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who led Mexico's independence in 1810.http://www.courierjournal.com/business/news2004/11/07/D6-peso07-2784.html