mexico city  mexicos economy contracted for the first time in five quarters pulled down by a decline in services during a third wave of covid19 infections that led to restrictions on some public activities gross domestic product a broad measure of output in goods and services was down 02 in the third quarter from the second in seasonally adjusted terms its first decline since the second quarter of 2020 the national statistics institute said friday services activity fell 06 while industrial output and agricultural production both grew 07 from the second quarter services were hit by the increase in covid19 infections during the quarter that prompted capacity restrictions at public places such as stores and restaurants in many parts of the country the thirdquarter decline adds risk to growth expectations of 6 or more this year following the economys 83 contraction in 2020 bank of mexico deputy governor jonathan heath said earlier this week that weakness in the quarter had a lot to do with the increase in covid19 infections but there should be some compensation in the fourth quarter as the wave has abated its still feasible to grow at that 6 this year but obviously its going to be a bit more difficult he said in the januaryseptember period gdp was up 61 from the first nine months of 2020 in unadjusted terms with industrial production up 87 and services 54 higher