Mexico's economy shrank by more than 10% in the first half of 2009 as a mix of slowing demand in the US, the effects of the H1N1 virus (swine flu) and lower oil price impacted industrial output, tax revenues and international trade.rnIn particular, cross-border traffic with the US - very little moves by ship -collapsed, falling by more than a third in the first seven months of the year (see 'Mexico meltdown', p3).rnElsewhere, cargo volumes in several of the country's main liner trades, including to/from the Far East and Europe, also eased (see table 1).rnMoreover, the figures, which are sourced from Chester (UK)-based MDS Transmodal, suggest that 2010 will be challenging too.rn'The global recession and associated drop in containerised seaborne import and export trade hit Mexico hard in the beginning, ' said Poul Hestbaek, regional director of trade management, commercial, for Hamburg Sud's Central America and Caribbean region.
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