Original sentence: 7% in 1995-- the worst decline in the country's history in a single year.Mexican businesses with dollar outgoings were immediately affected.The country's GDP contracted approx.There were massive industrial lay-offs and several well-publicized suicides.This included companies with dollar denominated debt and those reliant on US suppliers
Edited sentence: 7% in 1995-- the worst decline in the country's history in a single year-- the incident also served to make it clear that his influence (if any) on the Zedillo administration was over.Although the country's GDP contracted approx.Businesses whose executives attended the meeting at Zedillo's office were spared the nightmare — forewarned, they quickly bought dollars and renegotiated their contracts into pesos.Mexican businesses with debts to be paid in dollars, or that relied on supplies bought from the USA, suffered an immediate hit, with mass industrial lay-offs and several well-publicized suicides.The December Mistake caused so much outrage that Salinas exiled himself in Ireland (he was campaigning worldwide for WTO head at the time).To make matters worse, the devaluation announcement was made mid-week, on a Wednesday, and for the remainder of the week foreign investors fled the Mexican market without any government action to prevent or discourage it until the following Monday when it was too late