MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Foreign direct investment to Latam reached 139 billion USD in 2008

Direct foreign investments in Latinamerica and the Caribbean are showing a significant resistance to the global crisis and in 2008 reached a record 139 billion US dollars, up 9.4% from the previous year according the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The increase in investments was pushed particularly by the strong influx of capital towards South America, and more precisely to Brazil, Chile and Argentina, points out UNCTAD in a paper on the current financial crisis and investment.

Those three economies which had attracted 67 billion US dollars in 2007 shot up to 79.8 billion last year, 53% of the total investment to the region.

The crisis however was merciless with Mexico, which given its close links with the United States saw the influx of direct investments fall dramatically to 18.6 billion US dollars last year.

Central America and the Caribbean also in the US sphere of influence, experienced a retraction in investments in 2008.

The situation coincides with a drop in investments leaving Latinamerica for overseas, which contracted 30.7% to 36 billion US dollars last year.