(Adds economists' comments)
Jan 31 (Reuters) - Mexico's economic growth slowed in
the fourth quarter amid tighter monetary conditions in Latin
America's second-largest economy, but still ended 2022 in
positive territory, preliminary data from the national
statistics agency showed on Tuesday.
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.4% in the
fourth quarter compared to the previous three-month period, down
from a 1% growth in the previous quarter but slightly above an
estimated 0.3% increase from economists polled by Reuters.
The data suggested that the Mexican economy held up better
than its Latin American peers towards the end of last year,
Capital Economics' senior emerging markets economist Jason Tuvey
said, despite being in the midst of a slowdown expected to
worsen in the coming quarters.
In the full year of 2022, growth reached 3%, statistics
agency INEGI said, also slowing down from the 5% advance
recorded in 2021.
The economic expansion comes even as the central bank
pursues an aggressive tightening cycle to tame high inflation,
hiking its key lending rate by 650 basis points to 10.50% during
the current cycle started in mid-2021 and with further
tightening expected ahead.
Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio had already stated in
a press conference on Monday that Mexico's economy likely grew
between 2.9% and 3% in 2022, echoing estimates from private
sector analysts.
INEGI said the fourth quarter growth was boosted by primary
activities including farming, fishing and forestry, which grew
2% from the previous quarter, while the secondary and tertiary
sectors posted smaller increases of 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.
The latest data marked Mexico's fourth consecutive quarter
of growth considering INEGI's preliminary figures, Refinitiv
data showed.
Year-over-year, the local economy grew for the seventh
quarter in a row with a 3.5% expansion in the October-December
quarter, matching economists' forecasts.
"Overall, this is a soft report - despite beating
expectations - consistent with our overall story of slowing
economic growth in Mexico, as COVID reopening demand fades and
the hit from high inflation and tighter financial conditions
intensifies," said Andres Abadia, chief Latin America economist
at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
The statistics agency is scheduled to publish final GDP data
for the fourth quarter on Feb. 24.
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo; Editing by Steven
Grattan)
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