Hurricane Alex adds to Mexico's economic woes

Hurricane Alex, which hit three northern Mexican states two weeks ago, will reduce the industrial output and raise inflation in the Latin American nation, economists said.

The natural disaster, however, is not going to lead to a financial crisis, because the government has a long-standing budget for natural disasters, the economists told Xinhua.

Hurricane Alex struck Tamaulipas State, which borders the United States, on Mexico's Gulf coast, on June 30 as a category 2 storm. According to state government figures, the storm killed six people there and as of Tuesday, 650,000 people had been left without drinking water and 350,000 others without access to normal communication.

However, the storm dumped most of its rains on Nuevo Leon State, where ensuing floods killed 17 people. By last weekend, when President Felipe Calderon visited Nuevo Leon's capital Monterrey, 140,000 people were left without food and water in that city alone. Coahuila, on the downstream of Nuevo Leon, was the third worst-hit Mexican state.

The storm killed a total of 27 people across Mexico and 10 people in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, which were in the storm's path to Mexico.

While the hurricane has long since dissipated, the water it brought onshore has been a major problem.


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