New investments in industries such as the automotive and mining and extractive industries boosted the arrival of capital in Mexico. There was also an increase in investment Greenfield, an indicator of future investment plans, grew by 43% since 2020, for example, the Chinese company Huawei announced that it will open a data center in the cloud with an investment of 4,500 million dollars (mdd) , highlighted the report.
The United States and China lead the list of countries receiving foreign capital with 376,000 million dollars and 181,000 million dollars, respectively; Hong Kong (China) ranked third with $141 billion, Singapore ($99 billion) and Canada ($60 billion) round out the top 5.
The first five recipients of FDI their figures improved compared to 2020, but they worsened in India, seventh place in 2021 (45,000 million dollars, 26% less than in 2021) and Germany – 11th place – with 31,000 million dollars, a drop of 52%.
FDI in the world
Globally, UNCTAD highlighted, FDI had a rise of 63%, to reach 1.58 billion dollars (trillion in English) last year. However, the outlook for this year does not look promising as a result of Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, the UN warned.
After the strong rise last year, due in part to the general collapse of 2020, “the outlook for 2022 is more discouraging,” the report acknowledged.
In the first quarter of this year, announcements of new plant investments by companies fell by 21% globally, mergers and acquisitions fell by 13% and international financial project agreements fell by 4%, trends that according to UNCTAD They are symptoms of a year down.
sudden depression
“The investment climate has changed dramatically with the war in Ukraine and the triple crisis it has caused: rising food prices, fuel prices, and greater financial rigidity,” the UN agency analyzed.
The persistence of the pandemic, the possibility of interest rate hikes in the large economies, the pessimism in the financial markets and the fear of a potential recession add uncertainty to the investment climate, in view of which “developing countries should receive support from the international community,” recommended UNCTAD.
In contrast to the outlook this year, foreign investment in 2021 benefited from a boom in mergers and acquisitions, an easing of financial policies and the application of stimulus packages in sectors such as infrastructure.
