The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLA) said on Monday that the economy in the region will contract over the 0.3 percent foreseen for 2009,due to the economic consequences of the influenza A/H1N1, mainly in Mexico.

Meanwhile, ECLA General Secretary Alicia Barcena said that despite the new estimation, the contraction will not be more negative than the contraction of 1.5 percent that the International Monetary Found (IMF) foresaw.

"Definitely, we are going to review the figures. It is possible that we review it low trend, but not as low as the IMF, the signs we see, honestly, is that Latin America has taken all the measures and that it will not be more drop," Barcena said.

In the case of Mexico, the ECLA said that it estimates a deeply reduction to the 2 percent that has been forecast before, because the disease has produced strong contractions in sectors like live stock and tourism, due to the stagnation of their economy.

(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2009)