<div id="subtitle">Mexico GDP down 6.8 percent in 2009, worst in 30 years</div><div><p>Mexico's economy shrank 6.8 percent in 2009, the worst result in at least 30 years, the Treasury Department said Friday.</p><p>The decline in full-year gross domestic product outpaced the 6.2 percent fall during Mexico's currency and debt crisis in 1995.</p><p>A bright spot was a 1.2 percent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the third quarter, although the level of economic output was 3 percent lower than the same period of 2008, the report said.</p><p>Still, it was the second consecutive quarter of GDP growth. The economy expanded 2.9 percent in the third quarter.</p><p>The report represented something of a comeback from the steep 10.3 percent decline in the second quarter, and officials had previously estimated a full-year 2009 contraction of around 7 percent.</p><p>The Treasury Department said it expects GDP to grow about 3 percent for all of this year, while noting "the recent evolution of the economy suggest the probability that growth may be greater than that prediction is considerable."</p><p>It said the country lost 181,271 formally registered jobs in 2009. Many of Mexico's 107 million people work in the informal sector.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68087967&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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