MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- A long, hot summer and hours of watching the
                  World Cup soccer tournament on television helped Mexicans in 1998
                  surpass Americans as the world's premier per-capita drinkers of Coca-Cola
                  Co. products.

                  The average Mexican drank 412 eight-ounce Coca-Cola drinks in 1998, up
                  13 percent from 1997, the fastest growth in Latin America, according to
                  Coca-Cola Co.'s annual report.

                  "In 1998, we increased (Mexican) per-capita consumption of our products
                  to 412 (eight-ounce glasses), the highest of our major markets," Coca-Cola,
                  the world's largest soft drink maker, said in the report.

                  The report said the company sold 1.6 billion unit cases in Mexico during
                  1998, accounting for about 68 percent of the country's total soft drink
                  market.

                  Americans came in second place, drinking an average of 395 glasses of
                  Coca-Cola Co. products per year in 1998. Chileans were in third place at
                  330 cups per person last year.

                  Susana Moline, an analyst with Mexico's BBV-Probursa brokerage, said the
                  warm Pacific Ocean current known as El Nino, which caused drought and
                  long dry seasons in much of Latin America in early 1998, helped boost soft
                  drink sales in general in Mexico.

                  The World Cup, played in France last year and watched by soccer fans
                  worldwide, also helped, she said.

                  But the World Cup comes only every four years, and drought is not
                  expected to return in 1999, so Mexico may lose first place this year.

                  "We are expecting a slowdown this year, because we won't have those two
                  effects, so we doubt the pace can be maintained," Moline said.

                  That would be in line with Coca-Cola's forecast late on Monday that
                  worldwide sales would weaken by 2 percent in the first quarter of 1999,
                  putting annual growth projections in jeopardy.

                  On Wall Street, Coca-Cola shares lost $3.875 on Tuesday, to $63.31 after
                  sales expectations were lowered.

                  Alex Roberts, an analyst with Santander Investment, said the strength of
                  soft-drink consumption in Mexico also reflected perennial factors such as
                  water pollution keeping people from drinking tap water.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.