FDI to Mexico Drops 16%

Source: Bloomberg Business Week

Mexico received 16 percent less foreign direct investment in the first nine months of 2011 than a year earlier, Economy Ministry data shows.

Foreign direct investment, or FDI, totaled $13.5 billion in the first nine months of this year, the ministry said in a report on its website today. Mexico registered $15.6 billion in investment during the same period last year, according to ministry data. The Ministry revised 2010’s FDI figure to $19.8 billion from $17.7 billion, the report showed.

Foreign direct investment, which last year almost matched the $21.3 billion Mexico received from remittances, is expected to reach $20 billion this year, according to Promexico, the country’s investment promotion agency.

Today’s report shows Mexico may not reach that goal, said Gabriel Lozano, a Banco Santander SA senior economist in Mexico City.

“I don’t see any investment project that could give it a boost,” Lozano said in a telephone interview. While 2011 numbers are lagging, investment is “volatile” and there is also a chance it could surpass expectations, he said.

Mexico received $2.55 billion in FDI in the third quarter of this year, the ministry’s report said.

Manufacturing, financial services, commerce, media, construction and mining were the sectors that attracted most of the investments, according to the Economy Ministry.

The U.S. was the largest investor in Mexico, with 65.5 percent of the total, followed by Spain with 13.2 percent.