Mexico lowers GDP expectations for 2017

Private sector economists consulted by Mexico's central bank in November reduced their 2017 GDP expectations from 2.3 percent to 1.8, the bank announced Friday.

In the monthly poll, the analysts predicted that Mexico's economic growth would be hurt by a weak global market, uncertainty as to the peso's exchange rate, international financial instability as well as low oil production and export prices.

This downturn from October was largely caused by the election victory of Donald Trump in the U.S., causing a 0.5 percent reduction by the economists. However, they maintained their 2016 expectation at 2.1 percent.

"The amount of analysts who consider that the business climate will worsen in the next six months increased from the last poll and is the majority this time," explained the report.

The economists also sharply worsened their expectation for the peso's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar at the end of 2016, putting it at 20.63 pesos to the dollar in November, as opposed to just 18.6 in October.

They also expect this trend to continue in 2017, with the peso continuing to depreciate slightly to trade at 20.77 pesos to the dollar.

Analysts also expect inflation to worsen in Mexico, hitting 3.53-4 percent in 2017 and 3.4 percent at the end of this year.

Trump's surprise victory has caused major uncertainty among Mexican economic sectors, given the president-elect's hostile rhetoric and pledges to change trade relations. Enditem