Mexico economy dropped 17.3% in second quarter as coronavirus bites

Mexico's economic activity plummeted 17.3 per cent in the second quarter compared to the previous as the economic shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic drove the country deeper into a recession, according to preliminary government data released Thursday.

Mexico's statistical agency said that the second quarter running from April through June was 18.9 per cent lower than the same period a year earlier in its seasonally adjusted estimates for gross domestic product.

In June, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography announced that industrial activity fell 25 per cent in April compared to March, the worst monthly decline since it began tracking the monthly data in 1993.

President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador said recently that the economy hit bottom in late April.

The country has lost more than 1 million jobs in its formal sector. More than half of Mexicans work in the informal economy, which is believed to have shed many more jobs.

The Mexican economy was already in a recession before the country recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19 February 28. The economy is forecast to contract at least 9 per cent in 2020.

The government has reported more than 408,000 confirmed infections and more than 45,000 deaths.