Thursday, July 17, 2025

Economic activity plunged 20% in April; worst decline ever recorded

Coronavirus lockdown measures had a devastating effect on Mexico’s economy in April, new data shows.

The national statistics institute Inegi reported on Friday that economic activity declined 19.67% in April compared to the same month a year earlier. April was the first full month in which nationwide coronavirus restrictions were in force.

The contraction was the worst year-over-year decline since comparable economic records were first kept in 1993. The previous record was an 11% contraction registered during the global financial crisis in 2009.

Inegi said that activity in two of the three broad sectors of the economy declined in April.

Activity in the industrial sector dropped a record 29.6% compared to the same month last year, while the services sector registered a 16.6% decline, also a record.

The agricultural sector provided some brighter news amid the gloom, growing by 2.4%.

News of the April slump comes two days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its 2020 growth forecast for Mexico to a 10.5% contraction. According to the IMF’s June World Economic Outlook Update, Mexico will suffer a deeper recession this year than any other country in the Americas.

Carlos Capistran, a Bank of America economist in New York, said the data for April is consistent with the forecast that Mexico’s economy will contract by 10% or more this year.

“It is not only the result of Covid-19 and the lockdown, but the lack of vigorous policies to help the economy,” he said.

“The latter and a virus that is still on the loose in Mexico will continue to keep economic activity in contraction territory for many more months.”

Source: El Financiero (sp) 

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
The achoque is a critically endangered salamander that’s the cousin of the famous axolotl.

Lake Pátzcuaro’s fishermen answer call to rescue the achoque, the axolotl’s endangered cousin

1
Fishermen in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, have teamed up with local scientists to raise achoque hatchlings and re-release them into the lake in an effort to stabilize their declining population.
men working in seaweed off the coast

Despite heroic clean-up efforts, sargassum keeps accumulating on Quintana Roo’s coast

2
A stunning indication of the current crisis — as well as of the locals' heroism — took place in Isla Mujeres, where between Sunday night and Monday morning, 140 tonnes of the algae came ashore.
water in the Cutzamala System

Cutzamala System recovers to 56% capacity after historic rainfall in central Mexico

0
The Cutzamala System, which supplies water to the greater Mexico City area, currently has 27.6% more water than it did at this point in 2024.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity