Mexico City  - Mexico's inflation rate was 6.53 per cent in 2008, its highest in eight seven years, the Mexican Central Bank said Thursday.

In 2000, Mexico recorded an annual inflation rate of 8.96 per cent. In 2007, it was 3.76 per cent, closer to the country's long- term goal of 3 per cent per year.

The forecast for the new year remained grim as the country's economy would not grow in 2009, the Finance Ministry warned. With its close economic ties to the United States, the Mexican economy is also suffering the impact of the global financial crisis.

"We are facing very strong downward pressures in economic activity," Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said Thursday in an interview with Radio Red.

"We think that our economy is not going to grow, but we do not think that it is going to shrink either. Our central prediction is that we will stay at zero," he said.

On Wednesday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched an anti- crisis programme, which freezes the price of petrol for a year, generates jobs and protects the unemployed. (dpa)