Analysts raise growth expectation in 2010: Bank of Mexico

Economic analysts expect a growth of 2.9 percent in 2010 for Mexico, slightly higher than the previous expectation of 2.8 percent, a Bank of Mexico survey said Tuesday.

However, the analysts, from 29 financial companies, surveyed by the central bank said they expected that the economy would decline 7.2 percent this year, worse than the 6.8 percent official forecast. It was the nation's worst economic performance since 1930.

They also raised the inflation expectation to 4.54 percent, versus an earlier forecast of 4.28 percent. The central bank has a 3-percent inflation target.

Mexico registered its worst ever quarterly contraction in April, May and June period, which was 10.3 percent lower than the same period last year.

The country was affected by its northern neighbor the United States, which buys 80 percent of Mexico's exports.

The U.S. economy went into recession since December 2007 and was further damaged by the outbreak of the worldwide A/H1N1 flu in late April and early May.

At the end of October, the Finance Ministry forecast that Mexico's economy was likely to grow 2.7 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous one, but it would fall 6.4 percent on a yearly basis.

The central bank estimated that the third-quarter growth was around 3 percent. Official data will be published by the National Statistics Agency on Nov. 30.

Source:Xinhua