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By Thomas Black

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico can meet its goal of annual economic growth of 6 percent by 2012 because strong public finances will help the country recover quickly from a worldwide slowdown, Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said.

Mexico has been able to boost government spending in the face of a global economic crisis for the first time in decades after years of reducing foreign debt and increasing international reserves.

“We have invested in our stability,” Carstens said today at a conference of Mexican finance executives in Cancun. “We’re going to preserve it, and it will reap benefits for us very soon.”

The federal government will spend more than the revenue it collects in 2009 for the first time in four years to help stimulate the economy, mostly through spending on roads, ports, refining and other infrastructure projects.

Changes in the law to increase taxes, relax regulations on oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos and to reign in government pension costs during the first two years of President Felipe Calderon’s administration will give Mexico the capacity to grow at higher rates, Carstens said.

The government is sticking to its 2009 economic growth estimate of 1.8 percent, Carstens said. Growth of 1.6 percent in the third quarter was better than expected and puts Mexico on the path for 2 percent growth this year, he said.

The government will keep providing companies with guarantees to help them sell commercial paper in Mexico until the market normalizes, he said.