Olivia Álvarez (Monex Europe) | The Mexican economy shrank by 1.2% in Q1 on a quarterly basis, or 1.4% when compared with last´s year same period (not seasonally adjusted). The fallout in Q1 follows a series of 5 quarterly contractions over the last year and a half, further deepening the ongoing economic recession in Mexico. The coronavirus shock is mainly to blame for the Q1 contraction as external demand dropped sharply, with domestic activity only being affected in the last week of the quarter by the implementation of social distancing measures. Even so, quarterly GDP was dragged down to its worst performance since the financial crisis in 2009, with the March GDP contraction of 1.25% adding to a monthly decline of 0.59% in February and stalemate in January.