Bank of Mexico lowers country's GDP growth forecast for 2015

Mexico's economic growth for 2015 will be between 1.7 and 2.5 percent, Bank of Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens announced Wednesday.

This range is lower than the central bank's previous estimate of between 2 and 3 percent. The economic performance in the second quarter of 2015 saw it rise by 0.3 percent, as opposed to 0.4 percent in the first quarter.

In recent weeks, both the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised their outlook for Mexico's GDP growth to 2.4 percent.

Carstens said that, as half the year has passed, more economic information allowed the government to revise its expectations.

However, for 2016, the governor said that the Bank of Mexico's predictions remained between 2.5 and 3.5 percent, based on the expected impact of structural reforms.

Carstens added that global industrial production had been dropping, leading to the lowered expectations.

He said that falls in trade and raw material, the drop in oil prices, and the ongoing impact of the economic crisis had not been expected.

The Mexican peso has also depreciated by 23 percent against the U.S. dollar in the last year, putting more pressure on the country's economy.

Nevertheless, Carstens ended on a note of hope, saying that Mexico's economy would improve in the second half of the year due to a rise in manufacturing and exports. Endi