Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has a lower approval rating at the start of his term than his predecessor did, a poll showed on Monday, February 18 underscoring the challenge he faces to push key economic reforms through a divided Congress, Reuters said.

Less than three months into office, 56 percent of Mexicans approve of Pena Nieto as president compared to 29 percent who disapprove of the job he is doing, according to a survey by Buendia y Laredo published by daily El Universal on Monday.

After 12 years of opposition rule, Pena Nieto returned to power his centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for most of the past century.

Pena Nieto's ranking is below the 58 percent approval rating scored by former President Felipe Calderon at the start of his own term. Some 26 percent disapproved of Calderon at the time.

Monday's poll was based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 people and reported a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Pena Nieto has promised to push through a series of economic reforms, including tax legislation and an overhaul of the lumbering state-run energy sector, that the last two presidents failed to drive through a divided Congress.