Finally, the wage gap debate underscores a determination to preserve the cost advantages that have resulted from the dollar's steep devaluation against other major currencies.

The index has gained 48 percent since Brazil's currency, the real, suffered a steep devaluation in January, setting off a new round of worries about Latin American markets.

In the private sector damage has been more limited, and some companies have enjoyed a new competitiveness as a result of the steep devaluation of the lira.

And the economic crisis brought on by the steep devaluation of the peso last December has vastly broadened El Barzon's base of support among the country's middle class.

The Liberals also argued that the steep devaluation in the Canadian dollar was increasing the cost of living for Canadians.

"A steep devaluation would undo the warehouse club approach," Mr. Gonzalez Solana said.

That is mainly because other factors besides the cost of capital determine competitiveness, among them labor costs and the dollar's steep devaluation since 1985.

The government is counting on weak consumer demand to temper inflation after a steep devaluation in the real forced the central bank to increase its 2001 inflation projection to 6.5 percent.

Some business leaders, too, noting the steep devaluation of the peso and cuts in subsidies for some necessities, have begun to give the President the benefit of the doubt.

As the dollar has plunged in the last four years, economists and policy makers have worried that the steep devaluation would eventually fuel inflation in the United States.