Mexico will recover from economic crisis by 2010: KPMG

"It will take approximately a period of two years for Mexico to recover from the economic crisis," said Roberto Cabrera, partner in charge of KPMG's Risk Advisory Services in Mexico on Friday.

KPMG, the global company which provides Audit, tax and advisory professional service, forecasted that the Gross Domestic Product for Mexico this year "will have a growth of 1 percent [this year] and in 2009 it is estimated to be of 1.2 percent," said Cabrera at a press conference with Francois Marchand, National Commercial Director of Latin America for KPMG Mexico.

In 2007, the GDP of Mexico grew 3.3 percent compared to 2006, according to Mexico's Department of Treasury.

The advisors also revealed results of a survey titled "Impacto de la crisis en las empresas en México" (Impact of the crisis on companies in Mexico) which was made to over 600 company leaders who operate in Mexico. The survey indicated the perception that there were three main causes of impact on the companies: a drop on income (73 percent), rise in costs (70 percent) and loss of profitability (50 percent).

Though the survey found that 10 percent of the respondents think the economic crisis will have a permanent risk impact their businesses, a surprise 37 percent said that this crisis brings opportunities.

The survey was made electronically throughout the company with the exception of three states, Chiapas, Nayarit and Tabasco. Individuals polled occupy positions as Directors, Managers, Executives and Advisors of areas such as finance administration, commercial, operations, human resources, among others.

The polled companies have annual sales between 200 million and 5,000 million of pesos in diverse industries including manufacturing, financial services, food, drinks and consumer products, automotive, construction, real estate, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, electronics and software services, tourism, transport and energy and natural resources.