Mexican Economy Grows for 16th Straight Quarter

Mexico chalked up its 16th consecutive quarter of economic growth in the April-to-June period as strong services output compensated for sluggish industrial production.

Gross domestic product, a measure of output in goods and services, expanded 0.6% seasonally adjusted from the first quarter and was up 1.8% from a year before, the National Statistics Institute said Tuesday.

Growth from the first quarter, which translates into an annualized rate of 2.3%, was in line with the preliminary estimate published last month, but marked a slowdown from the 2.7% annualized growth in the previous quarter.

Increased employment, despite the impact of rising inflation on wages, has supported services that led growth in the second quarter, while industrial production was flat.

The 1.8% expansion in GDP from the second quarter of 2016 was negatively affected by the Easter holiday in April. It brought growth for the first half of the year to 2.3%, compared with the first six months of 2016.

The economy is widely expected to slow in coming quarters, with private and government economists projecting a 2% expansion for the full year, down from 2.3% in 2016.

"So far economic growth has been better than expected, especially considering the pessimistic outlook at the end of last year and early this year, above all because of the risks of eventual disruption in Mexican-U.S. trade relations," Banco Santander said in a note.

The first round of discussions to redraw the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada ended Sunday in Washington, D.C., and the next round is set for Sept. 1 in Mexico.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 22, 2017 09:56 ET (13:56 GMT)