Mexico slashed budget deficit in 2002 by 2.2 percent of GDP

Mexico cut back its fiscal budget deficit in 2002 by 2.2 percent of the nation’s Gross National Product (GNP) from a 2.9 percent shortfall the year before, thanks in part to bulkier revenues reaped out of oil export and a more favorable trade balance.

Mexico is the world’s eighth oil producer and one of the premiere crude suppliers of the United States, its number-one trade partner.

The decrease matches in time with a similar shrinkage in the manufacturing service deficit and a heftier surplus in the transfer accounts.

The current account of the budget balance that includes trade, insurance, tourism and banking dipped in 2002 from over $18 billion the year before to little more than $14 billion this time around, the Mexican Central Bank stated in a press release.

However, the current account shortfall peaked $4.7 billion in the last quarter of 2002 compared to $3.1 billion in the third quarter of last year.