Wednesday, March 12, 2008

GDP Increase?


March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon said changes to the methods used to calculate economic growth will be ``beneficial'' and ``probably surprise'' analysts.


Mexico's economy may reach $1 trillion, narrowing the gap with Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, because of a change in the way output is calculated, according to Citigroup Inc.'s Banamex unit and UBS Pactual. The statistics agency may announce the changes as soon as this month.


The revised GDP figures may show that last decade's efforts to sell state-owned businesses, sign free-trade accords and facilitate financing in the local market for private companies provided a greater spark to growth than prior numbers had indicated, said Alfredo Thorne, head of Latin America research for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Mexico City.


``This will start a lot of debate and comparison with other countries in the region,'' said Sergio Luna Martinez, director of economic research at Citigroup Inc.'s Banamex unit in Mexico City.


Under the changes, economic growth will be based on the composition of the economy in 2003, instead of 1993, Calderon said. Industries such as telecommunications will probably be given greater weight, while the agriculture industry will be pared back, Thorne said.




Importance: So Mexico's GDP has increased...or at least it has on paper, as the only change that has been made is the way their are calculating the statistic. Nevertheless, economic growth is always good and other sources indicate that production and exports are doing well this month in Mexico.

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