As shown since the last two years, foreign direct investment in Colombia has been backing, which also verifies the low levels of investment in the economy.
At least this is shown by the Bank of the Republic in the records of the exchange balance, which Until last August, it indicates that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Colombia added US $ 6,357 millionwhich represented a 20% drop compared to the first eight months of 2024, when the figure amounted to US $ 7,939 million.
In addition, since August 2021 (with US $ 536 million) there was no such low figure in Monthly entry terms of FDI, as last month was US $ 584 million.
Until August 2023, the figure reported by the issuer in the exchange balance accounts gave an account of a figure of US $ 9,370 and at the end of the same 2022 period it was US $ 7,690 million.
It should be remembered that in the first eight months of 2021 the country had entered the country for the sum of US $ 4,536 million and at the same period of 2020, the year of pandemic, was US $ 5,049 million.
Oil and mining
At the end of August, for oil and mining the balance added US $ 4,781 million, which represented 75% of the total FDI.
However, this figure does not necessarily mean that the figure of foreign investment in oil and mining has entered They can also be utilities that these companies allocate in the country for different taxes.
This situation of a lower dynamic in the arrival of resources for productive activities in the country in the First eight months of this year can reflect a deterioration of the general investment environment that the country is experiencing and also to several external factors, both economic and geopolitical, as well as the decrease in the country’s sovereign qualification.
The figures of the exchange balance of the Bank of the Republic show that Colombian investment abroad in the first eight months of the year amounted to US $ 1,236 million, Figure that nevertheless has a 44.8% drop compared to the same period of 2024 when these investments added US $ 2,240 million And a year earlier, for the same period they were US $ 1,384 million.
Towards the coming months, the direct impact on the FDI that may cause the United States to Colombia for the fight against drugs will have to be detailed.
From that country, 42% of the FDI originates in Colombia and a drop in the flows could have effects on employment, productive chains and economic growth, as said the American Colombo Camera Amcham Colombia.
It is important to highlight that foreign investment figures by Washington to Colombia are important. Analyzing the data of the Bank of the Republic, the investment of the US has been ascending during the last four years.
In 2021 that country invested US $ 1,732 millionmaking a leap to US $ 5,095 million in 2022, US $ 5,449 million in 2023 and US $ 5,552 million in 2024. Also, in the first quarter of this year the FDI of that country already reaches US $ 1,080 million.
Now, based on an Amcham Colombia model, IED affectations due to a descertification depending on the type of sanction could generate losses between US $ 1,151 million and US $ 2,201 million, in case severe sanctions are applied.
Holman Rodríguez
Portfolio
