MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s economy showed life in the first three months of the year, growing 0.9% compared with the final quarter of 2021, according to preliminary estimates released Friday by Mexico’s statistics agency.
That was improvement over the zero growth in final three months of 2021 and the slight retraction in the quarter before that, but the economy continued to show weakness after its initial rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced shutdown of 2020, fueled largely by the United States’ economic recovery.
GDP in the first quarter of 2022 was 1.6% above the same period a year earlier.
Moody’s Analytics Director Alfredo Coutiño said in a report Friday that Mexico’s economy had not recovered its pre-pandemic level of output.
“Its weakness has extended and prospects for the year have been revised down,” Coutiño wrote. “Mexico will report the second-smallest growth among Latin America’s seven largest economies, preceded only by Brazil.”
Mexico’s economy continues to be at risk of a significant slowdown, Coutiño said. Growth for 2021 was 5%, but average growth is now predicted to be around 1.5% in 2022.
The economy’s weakness “is mainly the result of chronically anemic investment, aggravated in the past three years by the reticence of private investors due to a loss of confidence in policymaking,” he said.
