Economies of Mexico, Canada grow again in Q4

Mexico: Though the final numbers for last year are not known yet, it is clear that Mexico suffered the largest economic contraction in decades. Oil production declined as well in 2009 and that prompted Fitch, an international rating agency, to downgrade Mexico's credit rating to BBB. But central bank officials hinted at a solid four percent growth in the country's GDP in Q4 of last year. However, rising inflation could curb this year's increase in output to 3.0%. Current inflation numbers are at a three-year low but experts expect it to quicken to 4.1% by the end of Q1 and nearly 5.0% percent by year's end. The manufacturing index of IMEF (Mexican Institute of Finance Executives) remained unchanged at 52.6 in December. Encouragingly, it was the sixth consecutive month above 50 and thus in a "growth" mode.

Canada: The first recession since 1992 ended in Q3 2009 after three consecutive quarters of shrinking output. October saw another growth of 0.2% even though it was slightly less than most analysts had expected. New home sales and existing home resales were both very strong in October and November. Mining was off in October and November saw yet another trade deficit. Latest estimates have the economic growth for 2010 at 3.3%.

Intra-NAFTA Steel Shipments: September 2009 showed the highest shipping volume of steel products since October 2008. It was 34.4% over August 2009.