Mexican economy grows 0.72% in July from June

Thursday, 30 September 2010 05:31 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

(Reuters) - The Mexican economy grew more than expected in July but the data still reinforced the view that Mexico's recovery from recession was losing steam, keeping pressure off the central bank to raise interest rates. The economy expanded 0.72 percent in July from June, the national statistics agency said on Monday. The reading showed the economy was 5.1 percent larger than it was in the same month a year earlier. That was a slowdown from the 6.77 percent annual growth rate clocked in June. Analysts had forecast growth in the IGAE reading, a proxy for total economic output, of 4.75 percent from July 2009. While Brazil, Chile and Peru have raised interest rates this year to cool their better-performing economies, analysts see Mexico keeping rates on hold until well into next year. Mexico is limping back from one of the steepest economic declines seen anywhere in the world in 2009, and total output isn't seen returning to pre-recession levels until at least 2011. A slowdown in the United States is already cooling growth in Mexican factory output