MEXICO CITY, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Sales of goods during the upcoming "El Buen Fin" (The Good Weekend) holiday shopping season could grow 5 percent year-on-year, thanks to the good pace of domestic consumption, government and business officials said Friday.
Announcing the promotion campaign due to take place on Nov. 16-19, business representatives and the government agreed that sales could reach 97 billion pesos (more than 5.1 billion U.S. dollars).
"The (economic) indicators look good, we've been growing for 34 consecutive quarters," said Finance Minister Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya.
"El Buen Fin" is a government-backed campaign aiming to spur domestic consumption. It has taken place annually since 2011, featuring promotion of goods and services offered by the business sector.
Some 60,000 businesses are going to take part in the campaign this year, which is akin to Black Friday in the United States.
"There is good enthusiasm because Mexico has economic stability, it has stable variables and there is greater certainty that we can build toward the future," said Juan Pablo Castanon, president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE).
Castanon, who was a member of a group of advisors during the negotiations to upgrade the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), said now is the time to encourage the development of the domestic market.
"El Buen Fin" was created with the objective to move company inventories and strengthen the domestic market as a way to drive the economy, said economic minister and chief NAFTA negotiator Ildefonso Guajardo.
"It has become good public policy and the agreement of collaboration (with the businesses) allows us to provide a certain level of certainty for the next decade," Guajardo said.
Mexico's economy, the second largest in Latin America after Brazil, could grow 2-2.6 percent this year, according to forecasts by the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico). In 2017, Mexico's GDP grew 2 percent.
