Mexico economy: still chugging along

February 13, 2012 11:57 pm 
by Adam Thomson


More solid news for Mexico – industrial output outstripped expectations in December thanks to the robust performance of manufacturing.

The figures, published Monday by Mexico’s national statistics institute, showed a 0.9 per cent jump in industrial output compared with November, more than doubling the 0.4 per cent on average that analysts had predicted.

The latest data bring the December-on-December growth in industrial output to 2.8 per cent – admittedly lower than the 3.3 per cent November-on-November growth, but still solid.

Industrial output was 3.8 per cent for 2011 as a whole compared with 2010, when it shot up 6.1 per cent – though that includes the statistical effect of comparing 2010 with the previous year when Mexican economy received the full brunt of the US financial crisis followed by the global recession.
The 2011 performance was mainly the result of three sectors: electricity, water and gas, which grew 5.5 per cent; manufacturing, which expanded 5.1 per cent; and construction, which increased 4.8 per cent. By contrast, mining contracted 2.3 per cent.

The biggest gain in the December figures was in manufacturing, which increased 1.2 per cent month-on-month, from 0.1 per cent a month earlier. Construction went up 0.2 per cent, though that figure put an end to two consecutive months of decline.

Monday’s report is an aperitif for the eagerly awaited figures showing fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP), which Mexico’s government expects to have increased 3.7 per cent compared with the same quarter of 2010. It expects overall growth for 2011 of 4 per cent compared with the previous year.