Weekly Report - 20 April 2004

GROWTH OUTLOOK | Encouraging first-quarter signs. President Vicente Fox reported last week that Mexico's GDP in the first quarter was up more than 3% on the same period last year. Cherry-picking the best figures for the period, he noted that the maquila (assembly) sector in February was up 8.5% on a year earlier, agriculture was up by 5% and construction by 5.5%. In March, he said, 84,000 new jobs were created, taking the total since January to 210,000.