MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The Mexican economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.2% in October from the previous month, as the country’s faltering recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic dragged into the fourth quarter, official data showed on Friday.
October’s seasonally-adjusted contraction was the third month-on-month decline in economic activity in a row, figures from national statistics agency INEGI showed.
A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast the economy would grow by 0.8% during October following a disappointing third quarter in which gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.4%.
Compared to the same month last year, the economy grew in October by 0.3% in seasonally-adjusted terms. In unadjusted terms it shrank by 0.7%, the INEGI data showed.
Mexican business operations have been disrupted by bottlenecks in international supply chains, which have led to temporary work stoppages in industries including carmaking, a pillar of the country’s export-driven manufacturing sector.
But a breakdown of the INEGI figures showed the contraction in October was led by weakness in tertiary activities, which cover services, and by primary activities, which encompass farming, fishing and mining.
Primary activities shrank by 1.2% from September, while tertiary activities were down by 0.5%. By contrast, secondary activities, which include manufacturing, rose by 0.6%.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; editing by Barbara Lewis)
