Mexican President ascribes global market jitters to dismal US unemployment

Mexico City, Aug 6: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blamed the drop in global markets on investor nervousness caused by the release of dismal employment figures in the United States.

"At the end of last week, like on Thursday, a situation of instability began, fundamentally attributed to data provided about the growth of unemployment in the United States," Lopez Obrador told a regular daily press conference, Xinhua news agency reported. "And this made the financial markets nervous and affected exchange rates worldwide," he said.

While the impact on the Mexican peso was not "very significant," the peso did slide somewhat to trade at 19.55 to the dollar, said the president. However, he added, Mexico has "a margin of protection," since the local economy has strong public finances and record levels of international reserves.