Mexico City, At least 100,000 small companies have been shut down in Mexico due to the soaring oil prices and new tax laws, the Latin American Organization of Small and Medium Companies (Alampyme) has said.

Other factors that contributed to the closer of the small firms included disloyal competition and underground and unfair trade practice, the Alampyme said at a press conference here Thursday.

"The deterioration of the business environment at a national level has forced many companies to cancel their official registration and shifted their business underground for tax evasion," said Pedro Salcedo Garcia, president of Alampyme.

The collapse of these companies has raised the unemployment rate in Mexico, Garcia said.

According to Alampyme, there are about four million micro, small and medium authorised companies in Mexico, while the number for their illegal peers has reached some 12 million.

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