MEXICO CITY, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's Central Bank (Banxico) lowered the country's economic growth forecast for 2019 on Wednesday to between 0.8 and 1.8 percent, from the previous forecast of between 1.1 and 2.1 percent in February.
It is the second consecutive quarterly cut by the central bank this year.
"The adjustment for 2019 mainly reflects the fact that the economy's performance during the first quarter was lower than forecast," said Banxico's governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said while presenting the January to March inflation report.
"But for the following quarters, we anticipate that the economy will return to a path of growth," he added.
The Banxico report came days after the National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported on May 24 that the Mexican economy grew 1.2 percent year-on-year during the first quarter of 2019.
For 2020, Banxico left the gross domestic product (GDP) forecast unchanged at a range of 1.7 to 2.7 percent.
In 2018, Mexico's GDP grew by 2 percent. The country's economy, the second largest in Latin America after Brazil, depends heavily on the economic cycles of the United States, its main business partner.
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