By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund said on Friday its executive board approved a four-year $15.6 billion loan program for Ukraine, part of a global $115 billion package to support the country’s economy as it battles Russia’s 13-month-old invasion.

The decision clears the way for an immediate disbursement of about $2.7 billion to Kyiv, and requires Ukraine to carry out ambitious reforms, especially in the energy sector, the Fund said in a statement.

The Extended Fund Facility (EFF) loan is the first major conventional financing program approved by the IMF for a country involved in a large-scale war.

Ukraine’s previous, $5 billion long-term IMF program was canceled in March 2022 when the fund provided $1.4 billion in emergency financing with few conditions. It provided another $1.3 billion under a “food shock window” program last October.

An IMF official said the new $115 billion package includes the IMF loan, $80 billion in pledges for grants and concessional loans from multilateral institutions and other countries, and $20 billion worth of debt relief commitments.

Ukraine must meet certain conditions over the next two years, including steps to boost tax revenue, maintain exchange rate stability, preserve central bank independence and strengthen anti-corruption efforts.

Deeper reforms will be required in the second phase of the program to enhance stability and early post-war reconstruction, returning to pre-war fiscal and monetary policy frameworks, boosting competitiveness and addressing energy sector vulnerabilities, the IMF said.

A senior U.S. Treasury official said the program was “really solid” and included commitments from Ukrainian authorities to achieve 19 structural benchmarks over the next year alone.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said the program faced “exceptionally high” risks, and its success depended on the size, composition and timing of external financing to help close fiscal and external financing gaps and restore Ukraine’s debt sustainability.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to have a devastating economic and social impact,” she said, lauding Ukrainian authorities for maintaining “overall macroeconomic and financial stability” despite the strains of the war.

The decision formalizes an IMF staff-level agreement reached with Ukraine on March 21 that takes into consideration Ukraine’s path to accession to the European Union after the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the new funding.

“It is an important help in our fight against Russian aggression,” he said on Twitter. “Together we support the Ukrainian economy. And we are moving forward to victory!”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who pushed hard for the past year to secure the IMF funding package and paid a surprise visit to Ukraine in February, said the package would help secure the country’s economic and financial stability and set the foundation for long-term reconstruction.

“I call on all other official and private creditors to join this initiative to assist Ukraine as it defends itself from Russia’s unprovoked war,” she said in a statement. “The United States will continue to stand by Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes.”

The IMF said international financial institutions, private-sector firms, and most of Ukraine’s official bilateral creditors and donors backed a two-step debt treatment process for Ukraine that includes adequate financing assurances on debt relief and concessional financing during and after the program.

The broad support reassured the IMF, the senior Treasury official said, adding, “That was really helpful for them to see that we really mean to be there for the long haul.”

LONGER WAR SCENARIO

IMF official Gavin Gray told reporters the fund’s baseline scenario assumed the war would wind down in mid-2024, resulting in the projected financing gap of $115 billion, which would be covered by the multilateral and bilateral donors and creditors.

The fund’s “downside scenario” saw the war continuing through the end of 2025, opening a much larger $140 billion financing gap that would require donors to dig deeper, he said.

Gray said the program had been designed to function, even if economic circumstances were “considerably worse” than the baseline. He said the countries providing financing assurances had agreed to work with the IMF to ensure Ukraine was able to service its debt to the IMF if larger sums if needed.

Ukraine will face quarterly reviews beginning as early as June, he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder in WashingtonEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Matthew Lewis)

By Jihoon Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s exports fell in March year-on-year for the sixth month in a row, hit by a cooling global economy and a persistent slump in the semiconductor sector, but exports did not fall by as much as expected, data showed on Saturday.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy exported goods worth $55.12 billion in March, down 13.6% from a year earlier, the trade ministry’s data showed, compared with drops of 7.5% in February and the 17.5% tipped in a Reuters poll.

It was the longest losing streak in exports in annual terms since August 2020.

For the January-March period, exports fell 12.6% from a year earlier, steeper than 10.0% in the preceding three months and the worst since the second quarter of 2020, boding ill for the heavily trade-dependent economy.

South Korea is the first major exporting economy to release trade data each month, with a diversified portfolio from chips to cars and ships, providing an early glimpse into the state of global demand.

By destination, exports to China dropped 33.4% in March, extending losses to a 10th straight month and marking the worst since January 2009. Shipments to the United States rose 1.6%, while those to the European Union fell 1.2%.

Semiconductor exports slumped 34.5%, in the eighth month of falls, but with the pace easing from a month before. Car exports jumped 64.2% to a record amount, but petrochemical products fell 25.1%.

Imports in March fell 6.4% to $59.75 billion, versus a 3.5% rise in the previous month and a 6.6% fall expected by economists. It was the fastest drop since August 2020.

As a result, the country clocked a trade deficit of $4.62 billion in March. It was the 13th consecutive monthly deficit, but the smallest since September 2022.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Choonsik Yoo, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

By David Shepardson and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled stricter electric vehicle tax rules on Friday that will reduce or remove tax credits on some zero-emission models but grant buyers another two weeks before the new requirements take effect.

The rules are aimed at weaning the United States off dependence on China for EV battery supply chains and are part of President Joe Biden’s effort to make 50% of U.S. new vehicle sales by 2030 EVs or plug-in hybrids.

The EV battery sourcing guidance issued on Friday triggers new requirements for critical minerals and battery components and takes effect for vehicle purchases starting April 18.

U.S. officials acknowledged some vehicles will see credits cut or eliminated. Tesla said on Wednesday the Model 3 rear-wheel drive credit will be reduced as a result of the guidance. The government will publish by April 18 a revised list of qualifying models and tax credit amounts.

The $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by Biden in August eliminated manufacturers’ EV sales caps but imposed new conditions on EV credits. They included a North American assembly requirement from August, price and buyer income eligibility caps from Jan. 1, and now the battery and critical minerals sourcing rules, effective April 18.

Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella said in a statement his best guess is “few” EVs on the market will qualify for the full $7,500 credit after April 17. He noted the requirement for EVs be assembled in North America to qualify for any credit eliminated 70% of models.

“Some EVs will certainly qualify for a partial credit. Given the constraints of the legislation, Treasury’s done as well as it could to produce rules that meet the statute and reflect the current market,” Bozzella said.

The IRA requires 50% of the value of battery components to be produced or assembled in North America to qualify for a $3,750 credit and 40% of the value of critical minerals sourced from the United States or a free trade partner also for a $3,750 credit.

Treasury proposes a three-step process for determining the value percentage of critical minerals and a four-step process for determining battery component value.

On Tuesday, the United States and Japan inked a trade deal on EV battery minerals. Treasury says newly negotiated critical minerals agreements can be considered free trade agreements. The guidance lists Japan as having a U.S. free trade deal.

The South Korean government welcomed the new rules, adding they reflected the opinion of the South Korean battery industry substantially and removed a “great deal of uncertainty”.

In a statement on Saturday, the country’s trade ministry said the government plans to hold further negotiations with the U.S. on the requirements of South Korean companies if necessary.

Senate Energy Committee chair Joe Manchin, a Democrat, said Treasury is ignoring the intent of the IRA in writing the guidance.

“American tax dollars should not be used to support manufacturing jobs overseas,” Manchin said. “It is a pathetic excuse to spend more tax payer dollars as quickly as possible and further cedes control to the Chinese Communist Party in the process.”

Treasury is not immediately issuing guidance on “Foreign Entities of Concern”, a provision due to start in 2024 barring credits if any components or minerals used in EV batteries are made in countries like China.

China has previously criticised EV related rules in the IRA, saying in September they could be violating WTO regulations.

Ford said in February it would invest $3.5 billion to build an EV battery plant in Michigan, using technology from Chinese battery company CATL.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced legislation this month seeking to block EV tax credits for batteries produced using Chinese technology, saying it would “significantly restrict the eligibility of IRA tax credits and prevent Chinese companies from benefiting.”

The public will have until mid-June to comment on the proposed guidance.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and David Lawder; Additional reportitng by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Sonali Paul and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bed Bath & Beyond Inc was sued on Friday by Mark Tritton, who was ousted last June as chief executive of the troubled home goods retailer, in a complaint accusing the company of failing to honor his $6,765,000 severance agreement.

According to the complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, Tritton said Bed Bath & Beyond stopped making required bi-monthly payments in January, with its chief legal officer citing the need to preserve cash as the sole reason.

In those discussions, Bed Bath & Beyond “conceded Tritton was (and is) entitled” to severance payments, under his agreement dated four days after he was replaced as chief executive, the complaint said.

Tritton also accused the company of “bad faith” for proposing a “buyout” of his severance at a discount but only if performance improves, even as it has resumed paying severance to some former employees.

Bed Bath & Beyond did not immediately respond to requests for comment after business hours. Tritton’s lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.

The Union, New Jersey-based company is trying to turn around its business after taking on too much debt, being slow to embrace online sales and alienating consumers by de-emphasizing brand-name products.

Bed Bath & Beyond is closing hundreds of stores, and on Thursday announced plans to sell up to $300 million of stock.

It also estimated that sales in stores open at least one year fell 40% to 50% in the quarter ending Feb. 25, and again warned that bankruptcy was possible if its turnaround failed.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond closed down 16.6 cents at a record closing low of 42.7 cents on Friday.

The company is one of several “meme” stocks, and its shares traded at $30 as recently as last August.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The U.S. and Mexico on Friday announced a deal to resolve a U.S. labor complaint at VU Manufacturing in northern Mexico that requires the auto parts plant to let workers freely choose their union in line with a trade pact aimed at improving labor rights.

Mexico’s government previously found “serious irregularities” at the factory violating the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the second probe into the plant at the request of the U.S. following worker complaints.

Mexico has now agreed to start sanctions proceedings against VU Manufacturing and ensure the firm takes “appropriate action” against human resource personnel who violated worker rights, including the possibility of firing them, the accord said.

“The new management must affirm … its willingness to dialogue with all the unions without discrimination or favoritism,” said the agreement published on the U.S. Trade Representative’s website.

VU Manufacturing, an unlisted Michigan-based company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Workers who recently formed a new union, La Liga, said VU Manufacturing management in the border city of Piedras Negras had repeatedly stalled the union’s efforts to establish the plant’s first collective contract, which would include a salary increase, and intimidated and harassed union supporters.

La Liga member Cristina Ramirez said the U.S.-Mexico accord would benefit workers if VU Manufacturing followed through.

“After we’ve proved so many violations to our rights, the only true remediation is the signing of the collective contract,” she said.

The plant produces car interior parts including arm rests and door upholstery for brands including Toyota, Honda and Chrysler, and pays workers 312 pesos ($17.32) a day.

The U.S. said it hoped Mexico’s efforts to fix the issue would discourage other firms from meddling in union affairs.

“This will send a strong message beyond this facility,” said Thea Lee, deputy undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Labor Department.

The VU Manufacturing case is among several labor complaints filed by the U.S. in Mexico under USMCA. Others involve General Motors, Stellantis and Panasonic.

($1 = 18.0099 Mexican pesos)

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese, Anthony Esposito and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

By Dietrich Knauth

(Reuters) – A group of Boy Scouts’ insurers on Friday asked a judge to delay the youth group’s exit from bankruptcy to allow them more time to appeal a record-setting $2.46 billion settlement of sexual abuse claims.

More than a dozen insurers, including Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, have said the Boy Scouts’ bankruptcy settlement puts them on the hook for paying “thousands of invalid and questionable claims.”

U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews in Wilmington, Delaware, rejected the insurers’ initial appeal on Tuesday, finding the settlement was a good faith effort to resolve claims by more than 80,000 men who say they were abused as children by troop leaders.

The insurers argued Friday that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals must weigh in before the Boy Scouts move ahead with a settlement that “may become a template” for handling insurance on other cases involving large numbers of individual plaintiffs.

The Boy Scouts have agreed to contribute insurance rights worth up to $4 billion to the settlement fund that will pay abuse claims. Those insurance payments are in addition to the $2.46 billion already contributed to the fund by the Boy Scouts organization, its two largest insurers, and organizations that have chartered Scouting units and activities, including churches.

The Boy Scouts settlement, approved in bankruptcy court in September, was supported by 86% of abuse claimants and the Boy Scouts’ two largest insurers.

The Boy Scouts organization said Friday it would oppose any effort to delay bankruptcy exit.

“We look forward to emerging from bankruptcy in the near future, providing equitable compensation for survivors and safeguarding the future of Scouting,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement.

The Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy in February 2020 after several U.S. states enacted laws allowing accusers to sue over decades-old abuse allegations.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Chris Reese)

(Reuters) – Deposits at all U.S. commercial banks fell in the week ended March 22 to their lowest since August, but at a slower rate than the week before, and stabilized at small lenders seen as more vulnerable to outflows after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

Data released on Friday by the Federal Reserve showed the $125.7 billion drop in deposits at all U.S. banks in the week ended March 22 was roughly $50 billion less than the record $174.5 billion outflows in the first week after the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Still, that left overall deposits nearly $860 billion below their record high from last April, with more than a third of that drop – about $300 billion – occurring in the weeks since the collapse of SVB on March 10 and Signature two days later.

Revisions to the prior week’s data showed deposit outflows in that first week of bank sector turmoil was almost double the $98.4 billion initially estimated.

Deposits at small U.S. banks edged up to $5.386 trillion in the week ending March 22 from $5.381 trillion the prior week. Deposits at the largest 25 banks by assets, meanwhile, fell to $10.65 trillion from $10.74 trillion. Deposit outflows from foreign banks with U.S. operations accounted for the remainder of the week’s decline.

The prior week’s data was revised to reflect a change in the way the FDIC bridge banks created after the failures were incorporated into the small bank data, the Fed’s release said.

U.S. finance officials have repeatedly said that deposit flows have stabilized following the historic run on deposits at SVB and Signature, both of which had exceptionally high levels of deposits exceeding the FDIC’s $250,000 insurance limit.

U.S. officials were forced to take the extraordinary step of guaranteeing all deposits at both banks, a measure that has drawn both praise and criticism and has created confusion over whether such blanket protection would be offered in other bank failures.

Despite worries among policymakers that the two failures and the upheaval they caused might instigate a credit crunch with banks recoiling from making loans, bank lending has yet to show a substantial drop except for one key business loan category: commercial and industrial loans.

Those dropped by nearly $30 billion on the week, the biggest decline since June 2021. However, it is unclear if the drop was related to the collapse of the two banks.

Other categories of bank lending from commercial and residential real estate to consumer credit cards and car loans have shown little change since the banking turmoil erupted earlier this month.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Dan Burns; Editing by Chris Reese and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court said on Friday Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk violated federal labor law by tweeting that employees of the electric vehicle maker would lose stock options if they joined a union.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board that said the 2018 tweet amounted to an unlawful threat that could discourage unionizing and ordered Musk to delete it.

Amid an organizing campaign at Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, Musk tweeted: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union … But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UAW President Shawn Fain applauded the decision in a statement but said it also highlights “our broken US labor law.”

“Here is a company that clearly broke the law and yet it is several years down the road before these workers have achieved a modicum of justice,” Fain said.

Musk’s prolific use of Twitter has landed him in legal trouble before. Tesla in February defeated a lawsuit from investors over another Musk tweet from 2018 saying funding was secured to take the company private, and a British cave explorer unsuccessfully sued Musk for calling him a “pedo guy” on Twitter.

Musk purchased Twitter last year for $44 billion.

In Friday’s case, Tesla had argued that the tweet about unionizing was not a threat and merely reflected the fact that union workers at other auto companies did not receive stock options.

But a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit disagreed.

“Substantial evidence supports the NLRB’s conclusion that the tweet is an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization,” the 5th Circuit panel wrote.

The labor board in a separate case last year said Tesla violated labor law by prohibiting workers at the Fremont plant from wearing shirts supporting the union campaign. The company is appealing that decision.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Matthew Lewis and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks have soldiered on through a banking mess to notch solid first-quarter gains. Some investors say that performance could come under pressure if a widely expected recession hits.

The benchmark S&P 500 posted a 7% gain for the first quarter, which ended on Friday, rebounding after a nearly 20% drop in 2022. The Nasdaq Composite’s 16.8% first-quarter jump was its biggest quarterly rise since 2020.

Wary investors say those gains leave stocks more vulnerable to an economic downturn, which may have been brought closer by tumult in the banking sector following this month’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Many point to equity valuations, which remain elevated by historical standards, while arguing that corporate earnings may have a long way to fall in the event of a recession.

“The answer is emphatically no, the market is not priced for a recession at all,” said Hans Olsen, chief investment officer at Fiduciary Trust Co, which is guarding against future market turbulence by holding higher than typical amounts of cash. For stocks, “it means that we could be in for some very nasty surprises over the coming quarters.”

To what degree equities have factored in a possible recession – and whether the economy will experience one – has been a point of contention on Wall Street. Strong data earlier in the year bolstered hopes that the U.S. would suffer only a mild recession or avoid one altogether, despite a barrage of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

This month’s banking sector turbulence again revved up concerns, as some analysts argued the stress on lenders could pressure the economy just as the Fed’s monetary policy tightening is starting to bite.

That’s pushed investors to take a second look at key metrics such as corporate earnings. While estimates for profits are already downbeat for the coming quarters, some believe they may fall further if there is a recession.

“Given the events of the past few weeks, we think … equity markets are at greater risk of pricing in much lower estimates,” Morgan Stanley strategists said in a report earlier this week, noting that earnings estimates were 15-20% too high even “before the recent banking events.”

S&P 500 earnings for the first quarter are estimated to have fallen 5% from the prior year, followed by an expected 3.9% drop in the second quarter, Refinitiv data shows. During recessions, however, earnings tumble at a 24% annual rate on average, according to Ned Davis Research.

U.S. companies will start reporting first-quarter results in the coming weeks.

HIGH VALUATIONS

Valuations for stocks overall are also high historically, with the S&P 500 trading at about 18 times forward earnings estimates compared to its long-term average P/E of 15.6 times, according to Refinitiv Datastream.

Nathan Shetty, head of multi-asset at Nuveen, believes current valuations show investors have yet to price in a recession.

“If the market was looking through this and saying, ‘ok recession is likely to occur,’ you would start to see those valuations start to come down a bit rather than being as elevated as they are,” he said.

Investors are looking to next week’s monthly payrolls report for a read on the strength of a labor market that has shown resiliency over the past year.

Some investors say stocks may have priced in a recession during last year’s steep decline, which saw the S&P 500 fall by as much as 25.4% from its all-time high to when it reached its October nadir.

Such a drop is broadly in line with historic data from Truist Advisory Services, showing the index has fallen an average of 29% during recessions since World War Two.

“Do we have to price in the same recession twice? Likely not, but that is not to say that the coast is clear yet,” said Angelo Kourkafas, an investment strategist at Edward Jones. Kourkafas believes stocks could face turbulence ahead but are unlikely to fall through their October lows.

S&P 500 return around recessions, https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-STOCKS/YEAREND/klvygglnzvg/chart.png

Other variables could determine how markets react to an economic downturn, including its severity and length. Another is whether the Fed begins cutting rates when a downturn hits or keeps them elevated to finish off its fight against inflation.

Though the central bank’s outlook shows borrowing costs remaining around current levels by year end, investors in futures markets see rates falling in the second half of the year.

“Once the market gets visibility into the timing on those rate reductions, notwithstanding a recession, I don’t think that you are going to see a lot of downward movement in stocks,” said Tony Roth, chief investment officer for Wilmington Trust.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Deepa Babington)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street rallied more than 1% on Friday and the Nasdaq notched its biggest quarterly percentage gain since June 2020, as signs of cooling inflation bolstered hopes the Federal Reserve might soon end its aggressive interest rate hikes.

The S&P 500 closed at its highest level since Feb. 15 and posted a second straight quarter of gains, led by the technology sector’s 21.5% rise in the first quarter.

The quarterly gains came despite a sharp sell-off in bank stocks following the collapse of two regional banks earlier this month and worries about a potential bigger financial crisis.

The S&P 500 financial sector was the quarter’s worst-performing sector, posting a 6.1% drop, while the KBW regional bank index fell 18.6% for the period.

The Commerce Department report Friday showed U.S. consumer spending rose moderately in February while inflation cooled.

“The equity market seems to be delighted with the slight tick lower in inflation, as it should be. It underscores that the Fed’s campaign is, in fact, working, albeit slowly,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Fed has been raising rates to cool inflation. Expectations for a 25 basis point rate hike at its May meeting dipped to about 50%, with no hike seen to be just as likely.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 415.12 points, or 1.26%, to 33,274.15, the S&P 500 gained 58.48 points, or 1.44%, to 4,109.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 208.44 points, or 1.74%, to 12,221.91.

For the week and month, stocks also posted strong gains. The Nasdaq was up 6.7% for March.

For the quarter, the Nasdaq jumped 16.8% in its biggest quarterly percentage increase since the three months ended June 2020. The S&P 500 gained 7% and the Dow rose 0.4% in the quarter, based on the latest available data.

S&P 500 sectoral performance in Q1, https://www.reuters.com/graphics/STOCKS-QUARTER/egpbyjdlwvq/chart.png

Semiconductors were among the quarter’s strongest performing stocks, with the Philadelphia semiconductor index rising 27.6%.

Shares of big tech gained as investors rotated out of banks and as U.S. Treasury yields eased, with the two-year note yield posting on Friday its largest monthly drop since 2008. Higher yields tend to be a negative for big tech companies.

Apple Inc shares ended up 1.6% on Friday, rising along with other megacaps. It also won its appeal against the decision by Britain’s antitrust regulator to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services.

Also on Friday, Boston Fed President Susan Collins said that wherever the U.S. central bank stops with its rate rises, maintaining that level for some time will be critical in helping to lower high inflation back to the 2% target.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.98 billion shares, compared with the 12.74 billion full-session average over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 4.78-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.45-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 19 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 81 new highs and 131 new lows.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas; additional reporting by Johann M Cherian Editing by Vinay Dwivedi, Maju Samuel and Richard Chang)

By Anthony Esposito

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The Mexican economy could grow up to 3.0% both this year and next, boosted by increased manufacturing investment and cooling inflation, according to a copy of the government’s latest budget forecasts seen by Reuters on Friday.

The ministry estimates Latin America’s second-biggest economy will expand between 2.2% and 3.0% this year, and between 1.6% and 3.0% in 2024, the document showed, as the country continues to claw back pandemic-led losses.

For 2023, the “lower end of the range was adjusted upwards due to the good performance of the domestic economy,” said the document containing preliminary forecasts for next year.

Mexico’s inflation rate by the end of this year is seen slowing to 5.0%, and then to 4.0% by the end of 2024.

As inflation climbed worldwide, central banks rushed to hike interest rates and slow the trend. Mexico’s central bank raised rates 25 basis points to 11.25% Thursday, but hinted the hiking cycle could be nearing its end.

The international rate increases have not compromised Mexico’s public finances, the ministry said.

Debt when President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s term concludes next year should be “moderate and diversified,” the ministry said, with around 80.6% denominated in Mexican pesos.

The ministry forecast Mexico’s crude oil export mix to average $66.60 per barrel this year, then slip to $56.30 next year, in estimates that are key to public finances since exports from state oil company Pemex represent a major source of tax revenue for the government.

The ministry saw total crude output at 1.877 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, mostly coming from Pemex operations, then ticking up to 1.914 million bpd in 2024.

The Dos Bocas refinery, a Lopez Obrador project underway in the Gulf state of Tabasco, is expected to begin operating at full capacity next year, the finance ministry said.

Mexico is also primed to benefit from private investment fueled by “nearshoring,” the trend of moving production to North America and away from Asia, the ministry said.

Nearshoring could add up to 1.2 percentage points to GDP the ministry said, without specifying a time frame.

In particular, the ministry anticipated a boost to foreign investment in manufacturing, and said the automotive industry was a “natural candidate” to take advantage of nearshoring.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla recently announced it would build a “gigafactory” in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, which local officials have said could bring in up to $10 billion in investment and create 10,000 jobs.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Chris Reese)