IMF cuts Mexico's 2015 growth forecast to 2.4%

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its Mexico's 2015 growth forecast from 3% in April to 2.4%, and from 3.3% to 3% for 2016.

"In the first quarter of 2015, the starting point for this update of the IMF’s global economic forecasts, world growth—at 2.2 percent—fell some 0.8 percentage point short of the forecasts in the April 2015 World Economic Outlook. The shortfall reflected to an important extent an unexpected output contraction in the United States, with attendant spillovers to Canada and Mexico," the IMF said in its July 2015 World Economic Outlook update. 

"In emerging market economies, the continued growth slowdown reflects several factors, including lower commodity prices and tighter external financial conditions, structural bottlenecks, rebalancing in China, and economic distress related to geopolitical factors. A rebound in activity in a number of distressed economies is expected to result in a pickup in growth in 2016," it added.

A year ago, the IMF estimated that Mexico would grow 3.5% in 2015.

In May the Bank of Mexico and the Ministry of Finance also slashed their forecasts for Mexico's economic growth in 2015. The governing board of the central bank cut it to between 2% and 3% compared to the previous forecast of 2.5% to 3.5%, while the Ministry of Finance cut it from 3.2% to 4.2% to between 2.2% and 3.2% after the National Statistics Institute (INEGI) revealed that the economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.5% in the first quarter of this year.