MEXICO | Inflation slows. On 9 March, Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) released the latest figures for the consumer price index (INPC), which shows that prices rose 0.56% in February as compared to January. This brings annual inflation to 7.62%. This compares to monthly inflation of 0.68% in January, when annual inflation stood at 7.91%.
MEXICO | US escalates dispute over GM ban. On 6 March, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) requested “technical consultations” with Mexico under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) regarding “Mexican measures concerning products of agricultural biotechnology”. The announcement comes amid a dispute over Mexican plans to halt imports of GM corn for human consumption. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated the US believed “Mexico’s current biotechnology trajectory is not grounded in science, which is the foundation of USMCA”.
MEXICO | Tourism ministry optimistic for 2023. On 5 March, Mexico’s tourism ministry (Sectur) announced that it expects income from international visitors to total US$31.17bn in 2023. Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco Marqués said that this would be an 11.3% increase on 2022 and a 26.8% increase on 2019. Torruco stated that it was estimated that the tourism sector would account for 8.6% of Mexico’s GDP in 2023 – up from 7.5% in 2021 and 6.8% in 2020.
MEXICO | Banxico cuts growth forecast. On 1 March, Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) released its latest quarterly report (October-December 2022) in which it cut its growth forecast for Mexico to 1.6% in 2023, down from 1.8% forecast in its November report. Banxico noted that economic activity continued to grow in Q4 2022 (0.46%) compared with Q3, but it slowed down compared with the previous three quarters.
Mexico: GDP growth
Percentage variation (year-on-year)
Mexico: unemployment rate
Economically active population
Mexico: inflation rate
Percentage variation (year-on-year)
