MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

2021 was a good year for foreign direct investment in Chile, the highest since 2015

Chilean central bank reported that FDI in 2021 was 95% higher than in 2020

Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, in Chile during the twelve months of 2021 reached US$ 16,782 billion, the best amount since 2015, according to the Central bank which added it represented a 95% increase over 2020. Overall it was 62% higher than the average of the last five years, and 16% above the 2003/2021 average.

The Central bank added that in December only, FDI amounted to US$ 787 million, much of it reinvestment from US$ 1,2 billion in assets' earnings. The bank also pointed out that the peak of FDI was back in 2012, when it totaled US$ 31,4 billion.

“This is very good news for Chile and gives an idea of the performance of the Chilean economy”, said the head of the InvestChile office, Andres Rodríguez. He underlined that foreign investment projects involve years of planning and have to comply with several chapters before they materialize, “so what we are seeing now is a continuity of capital influx which has not interrupted, and again confirmation of international corporations confidence in the country”.

For 2021, UNCTAD, the UN conference on trade and development had estimated that global FDI will have increased between 10 and 15%, after having dropped 40% in 2020 because of the pandemic impact.

“Chile's growth overcame several times that estimate, which is most important ahead of a year in which efforts will continue to fully reactivate the economy and employment in Chile, tasks in which foreign investment will continue to play a most relevant role”, underlined Rodriguez.