St Lucia Sees Huge Surge in Foreign Direct Investment

BY STAFF REPORT

St Lucia received $138 million net foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2012, up by 81.6 percent from last year, according to data collected by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

St Lucia is one of seven Caribbean countries that saw an increase in Net FDI during the period, along with Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago, said a report in Caribbean Journal.

Net foreign direct investment is defined as direct investment in a country’s economy after deduction of outward direct investment by residents of that country. It includes the reinvestment of profits.

The biggest recipient of FDI in the Caribbean region was Dominican Republic with a total of $3.78 billion.

Haiti, which suffered several natural calamities like earthquake in recent past, saw its FDI inflow decrease from $181 million in 2011 to $124 million in 2012. And this country, according to ECLAC, is less likely to improve its finances because of a series of storms that caused severe damage to its infrastructure and agriculture crop.

St Kitts and Nevis, the Journal says, suffered the largest drop-off in foreign investment, falling 51.4 percent to $69 million.