Mexican economy is feeling the pinch

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The Mexican economy, heavily dependent on fortunes north of the border, is showing signs of strain in key sectors, observers said.

"It would be a delusion to say we won't suffer some consequences of this great crisis," Mexican Treasury Secretary Agustin Carstens told USA Today. "Exports, tourism and (migrant) remittances are all going to feel the effects of this phenomenon."

Several sectors showed signs of distress in August, the newspaper said. Manufacturing exports to the United States dropped 3.8 percent that month with automobile exports leading the declines with a 13-percent drop.

Money Mexican migrants sent home to relatives -- Mexico's the second-largest source of revenue behind oil -- dropped 12 percent in August, the largest single-month decline on record, the newspaper reported.

In another broad measurement, the IPC stock index in Mexico has fallen 28 percent since May.

Even street peddlers are feeling the economic pinch. "I used to come here with 300 tacos and sell them all before noon. Now I sell 180 in the same time," Jorge Flores, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, told USA Today.