Mexico's Consumer Confidence Up on Year Anthony Harrup - Dow Jones
go to original March 6, 2013

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's consumer confidence in February was slightly higher than a year earlier, but fell from January as consumers were less optimistic about the current economic situation and prospects for the coming year, the National Statistics Institute, or Inegi, reported Tuesday.

Inegi said the consumer confidence index was 95.5 last month, compared with 93.6 in February of 2012.

Confidence fell 0.5% from January in seasonally adjusted terms. Inegi said that consumers were less optimistic about the country's and their own economic situations than they had been in January, but felt more able to buy big-ticket items such as appliances and furniture.

Compared with a year ago, confidence levels were higher for most categories of questions.

A slowdown in inflation in the final quarter of 2012, and an increase in formal employment levels, led to confidence in January reaching its highest level since before the 2008-2009 economic crisis. Inflation picked up again in February, however, and January's unemployment was well above expectations.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@dowjones.com

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