MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s oil-export tax revenues totaled 363.58 billion pesos ($27.34 billion) between January and May, 10.3 percent less than in the same period of last year, officials said.

That drop occurred even though the Mexican government – acting last summer when oil prices were widely predicted to fall from a record high of $140 a barrel – hedged the price of crude exports at $70 a barrel for all of 2009.

By employing that strategy, Mexico protected its fiscal revenues even though the price of Mexican crude plunged below $40 a barrel earlier this year amid the global economic crisis.

Net oil revenues in the first five months of this year totaled $23.18 billion, down 24 percent from the January-May period of 2008.

But by compensating for that decrease by buying put options from international financial institutions in late July 2008, the real decline in revenues was 10.3 percent, the finance ministry said in its report on the country’s public accounts.

Mexico depends on oil revenues for roughly one-third of its federal budget.

During the first five months of the year, total budget revenue came in at $83.93 billion, down 6.9 percent compared with the same period of 2008, the ministry said.

Officials said non-oil tax revenues fell 14.9 percent, with the collection of value-added tax and income tax – down 20 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively – representing the biggest declines.

Meanwhile, during the same period, total public-sector spending rose to $84.33 billion, a 4.3 percent increase compared with January-May 2008, and public debt servicing costs rose 12 percent to $5.23 billion.

The ministry said that Mexico’s total gross debt at the end of May came in at $237.6 billion, compared with total net debt of $220.99 billion.

More than 82 percent of the net debt is owed to domestic creditors. EFE