COSTA RICA NEWS — Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) – Inversión Extranjera Directa (IED), in Spanish – in Costa Rica fell 21% in the first half of 2014, said the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. (ECLAC) – Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (Cepal), in Spanish.
According to the reprot released Thursday, during the first six months of the year, the Costa Rica attraded US$1.075 billion in foreign imvestment, down 21% compared to the US$1.358 billion in the same period last year.
The ECLAC, in its report, did not detail the reasons for the negative change.
Jorge Sequeira, executive director of the Coalition for Development Initiatives (Cinde), put a positive spin on the results, saying if we look at the medium term, “we note that Costa Rica has managed to remain stable amid global challenges.”
The ECLAC report notes that among the factors behind the decline of the FDI in the region includes the absence of large corporate acquisitions during the first half of the year, when compared to those recorded in the same period last year. Another element was a cooling of mining investments due to falling prices for metal.
In Latin America, a number of countries saw a positive flow of FDI: Uruguay, 9%; Colombia, 10%; Panama, 26%; Dominican Republic, 20%; Brazil, 8%; and Guatemala, 3%.
By contrast, Argentina experienced the single largest decline, with a negative 101% varation between 2014 and 2013. Chile also repored a drop,-16%; as did Venezuela, -54%; and Mexico -66%.
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