Mexico slow growth weakens peso

Mexico´s peso weakened on investor concern that slower U.S. growth will cut demand for Mexican-made goods and choke foreign investment.

The currency weakened 2 centavos, or 0.2 percent to 10.50 pesos to the U.S. dollar as of 12:15 p.m. in New York. The peso earlier weakened to 10.56 to the dollar, its lowest point since January 1999, when a devaluation in Brazil pushed other Latin American currencies down. The peso has dropped 1.2 percent this month.

´´If the U.S. consumer, as has been widely documented, stops being the only active engine of the U.S. economy then that is going to hurt Mexico,´´ said Jose Maria de la Torreof ING Bank Mexico SA.

U.S. retail sales rose a less-then-expected 1.2 percent in December as consumers reined in purchases at department and grocery stores. Unemployment in the United States, the destination of about 90 percent of Mexican exports, held at an eight-year high.