IMF lowers Mexico's economic growth to 1.9% for 2018

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised Mexico's growth forecast for 2018 and lowered their estimate from 2% to 1.9%, according to the World Economic Outlook (WEO).

This new projection is below the factual objective the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Credit (SHCP) stated in the General Criteria on Economic Policies for 2018 and the Bank of Mexico (BANXICO) during their Quarterly Inflation Report – both expected a 2.5% growth for next year.

In 2017, the IMF rose the growth projection from 1.9% to 2.1%, despite the uncertainty on the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) talks and the downwards review of the economic activity of the United States.

The IMF had initially increased their outlook on the Mexican economy this year, as a consequence of the results during the first quarters of the year, which were higher than anticipated and the building trust in financial markets.

The IMF has also downgraded their forecast on the GDP of the United States by 0.2 for 2018, while it revised up the projections for Canada to 2.1%.

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