St. Kitts Sees Huge Increase in Foreign Direct Investment

St. Kitts and Nevis received a record amount of FDI in 2011, outpacing most of the other nations in the Caribbean, according to a recent report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Given the contents of the report, St Kitts and Nevis received $142 million in FDI in the year 2011, an increase of nearly $20 million compared to US$122 million received in 2010.

ECLAC has attributed this surge in investment to the investor-friendly policies of the government in St. Kitts.

According to the report, St. Vincent & the Grenadines saw an increase from $103 million to $135 million in FDI during the same period.

But the FDI inflow decreased in Antigua & Barbuda from US$101 million in 2010 to US$64 million in 2011. Similarly, foreign direct investment declined in neighboring St. Lucia and Grenada also.

According to the report, Latin America and the Caribbean countries received a total of US$153.448 billion in FDI in 2011, representing 10 percent of FDI globally.

In the first six months of 2012, the FDI flow rose to $94 billion, an 8 percent increase compared to the same period a year before.

A majority of investors in the region are from countries like the United States (18 percent), Spain (14 percent) and Japan (8 percent).

The largest amount of FDI in the region flowed into the Dominican Republic, where the FDI increased US$2.37 billion in 2011 from $1.89 billion in 2010.