LatinNews Daily - 29 February 2024

*Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has released its quarterly report for the final quarter of 2023, in which it reduced its 2024 GDP growth forecast to 2.8%, down from a previous (November) forecast of 3%. However, it maintained its forecast for 2025 at 1.5%. Banxico attributed the 2024 drop to “lower growth in the last quarter of 2023 compared to what was anticipated” but maintains that “the expected dynamics for economic activity in 2024 do not change significantly”. The bank also forecast annual inflation of 3.5% in the last quarter of 2024, up from its previous (November) estimate of 3.4%. Still, overall inflation is “expected to converge to the target (of a rate of 3%) in the second quarter of 2025”. The report concluded with expectations for “high growth compared to [Mexico’s] historical average, supported by domestic spending and the announced fiscal stance and, to a lesser extent, in the process of reconfiguring global value chains”.  Banxico’s latest GDP forecast came the day after the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a new report on Mexico in which it maintained its 2024 growth forecast for Mexico at 2.5%.