MEXICO CITY, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Private sector financial analysts in Mexico upgraded their economic forecast for the country in 2020 from a 9.8-percent contraction to a 9.31-percent one, Mexico's central bank Banxico said Tuesday.
For 2021, analysts maintained their previous forecast that gross domestic product (GDP) will expand 3.2 percent, according to Banxico's survey of 36 leading financial groups on Oct. 22-29.
The Mexican economy, the second largest in Latin America after Brazil, shrank 0.3 percent in 2019, its first negative growth in a decade, but analysts predicted an even worse performance this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Analysts revised up their inflation forecast for 2020 from 3.86 percent to 3.95 percent, and for 2021 from 3.55 percent to 3.58 percent, according to the survey.
Mexico ended 2019 with an inflation rate of 2.83 percent, its lowest since the end of 2016 and the second lowest year-end rate on record.
Regarding the national currency, analysts forecasted the peso to trade at 21.69 to the U.S. dollar at the end of the year, lower than the 22 pesos they forecasted in October.
In March and April, the peso saw one of its most volatile periods since the government adopted a free-floating exchange rate in the mid-1990s, due to global jitters over oil prices and the economic impact of the pandemic. Enditem
