As a result of important economic and political reforms, at the beginning of the sixties, Mexico was moving towards a stage of accelerated economic development. Institutions that encouraged productive activities were created, the construction of infrastructure was dynamic and the economy achieved price stability.

Mexico was moving fast from a rural based economy to an urban economy, where the industrial sector was the main engine of growth. As part of this modernization process, the national business representative bodies grew and strengthened, while companies and business organizations across the country started to create economic research departments that would provide them with economic advice.

In 1961, the Chamber of Commerce in Mexico City (CANACO-MEXICO) proposed to create an Economic Research Center that would provide reliable economic analysis to the Mexican private sector. It was in 1963, when the Private Sector’s Center for Economic Studies (CEESP for its acronym in Spanish) was legally constituted as a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit think-tank.