Latin America FDI: Winners & Losers

Brazil outperforms Mexico. Ecuador and Venezuela big losers in FDI-GDP ranking.

BY LATINVEX STAFF

Chile is Latin America’s foreign direct investment star. Although it has Latin America’s sixth-largest economy it garnered the region’s second-highest FDI last year. However, as a percent of GDP, it outperforms all other countries in Latin America, according to a Latinvex analysis of FDI data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and GDP data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2012.

The big loser? Ecuador, which has Latin America’s lowest FDI-GDP ratio and last year managed to attract less foreign direct investment than much smaller countries like Nicaragua and Honduras.

Another major loser is Venezuela, which has Latin America’s second-lowest FDI-GDP ratio after Ecuador.

BRAZIL AND MEXICO