Economy & Business - May 2009 (ISSN 1741-7430)

The past month has produced some hideous economic statistics. On 20 May the national statistics agency, Inegi, reported that the country's GDP contracted 8.2% year-on-year in the first quarter. This was slightly worse than most local economists had forecast and is the biggest fall for 14 years. On 27 May Inegi reported that the official unemployment rate for April was 5.25%. Although this was slightly better than February's 5.3%, both are the worst since the 1995Tequila crisis. On 1 June the central bank reported that the latest consensus amongst independent economists was for a contraction of 5.8% year-on-year in 2009.