UPDATE 1-Mexico consumer confidence edges up in August

(Adds detail, background)

MEXICO CITY, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Mexico's consumer confidence index MXCONC=ECI edged up to 89.6 points in August from a record low of 88.4 in July, the national statistics agency said on Thursday.

Mexicans were slightly more optimistic about both their current and future economic situations, but less hopeful about the country's current economic situation, the agency said.

In July, the consumer confidence index was at its lowest since it was launched in 2001.

Mexican inflation, at 5.37 percent in early August, is running at a more than five-year high, due mostly to high global food prices.

Inflation across Latin America has jumped in recent months as rapidly developing economies like India and China boost global demand for food commodities.

Higher grain prices have especially hurt the poor because they spend a higher portion of their incomes on food.

Mexico is also feeling the pinch from a slowdown in the United States, although it is weathering the downturn better than the last time the U.S. economy went south.

Mexicans working in the United States, which is suffering from an economic slowdown, are also sending less money home now than a year ago, the central bank says. (Reporting by Noel Randewich and Jason Lange, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)