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By Noel Randewich and Jason Lange

MEXICO CITY, March 19 (Reuters) - Mexican industrial output rose faster than expected in January as a surge in car exports helped the country's factories resist an economic slowdown in the United States.

Mexico sends about 80 percent of its exports to the United States, and economists see the Mexican economy slowing this year amid ever-more-common predictions of a U.S. recession.

But industrial production <MXIPY=ECI> increased 3.1 percent from the same month in 2007, a government report showed, better than the 2.49 percent increase predicted in a Reuters poll.

Industrial output, which accounts for about a quarter of Mexico's economy, had risen 1.3 percent in December.

The acceleration comes despite a slowdown at factories in the United States, where industrial output fell 0.5 percent in February after rising a meager 0.1 percent in January.

On a month-over-month basis, Mexican industrial output <MXIP=ECI> rose 0.85 percent from December.

The report showed manufacturing activity was up 3.7 percent in January from a year earlier, helped by more automobile production.