Domestic activity has become strained in recent months by labour shortages and high interest rates introduced to tackle inflation, which has accelerated under record military spending.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to slap a 25-percent tariff on Mexican goods on February 1, a move that analysts say would deal a heavy blow to Latin America's second-largest economy.

On Monday and Tuesday, President Trump announced that he would be keeping one of his key campaign promises and imposing by Feb. 1 a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico as punishment for allowing drugs and migrants to cross into the United States as well as an additional 10% tariff on goods from China to penalize the country for sending