Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s production of cars and light trucks fell at the slowest pace this year in October and the country’s auto trade group said the industry is recovering.

Output of vehicles fell 13.9 percent from a year earlier to 184,769 units last month, the smallest annual decline since December. Production fell 23 percent in September and 34 percent in August, the nation’s Automobile Industry Association said.

“We can say that we touched bottom in production,” Eduardo Solis, the association’s president, told reporters in Mexico City today. “Production has a better outlook.”

Mexican auto production plummeted at a 50 percent rate in the beginning of the year as the recession in the U.S., which buys about 80 percent of Mexico’s exports, cut demand for vehicles and parts. Output rose 26 percent in October from the prior month, the association said.

Still, it may take more than two years for the local auto industry to again produce 2.1 million units a year, the annual output level before the global economic crisis, Solis said. The industry produced 1.18 million cars and light trucks in the first 10 months of this year, compared with 1.81 million vehicles in the first 10 months of 2008, a 35 percent decline.

Domestic sales sank 18.5 percent to 67,881 vehicles last month, while exports declined 13 percent to 145,771 cars and light trucks.

President Felipe Calderon said Nov. 5 at the Bloomberg Economic Forum in Mexico City that the country’s recession ended in the third quarter and the number of formal jobs rose for a fifth month in October. The government expects growth of 3 percent in 2010.

The economy contracted 10.3 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the world’s steepest decline after Russia, as exports and tourism revenue sank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jens Erik Gould in Mexico City at jgould9@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 10, 2009 12:56 EST