The results placed the country in the worst position in the region, although it had a record number of investment announcements thanks to the HIF Global project.
Uruguay recorded the lowest levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of the region and its historical series in 2023, with a negative result of just 436 million dollars, a drop of 105% compared to the previous year. The data comes from the annual report of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) about “The Investment Foreign Direct in Latin America and the Caribbean 2024”.
The investment environment was not the best last year amid constant geopolitical conflicts and high interest rates that led to reduced investment flows around the world. This was also felt in the region, where the FDI was 9.9% lower than that recorded in 2022; but particularly in Uruguay, The impact was very negative: the difference between one year and the next, the difference in capital inflows was -105%.
Likewise, and despite the fact that the reinvestment of profits was the main component of the FDI In the country, the category registered a decline of 58%. Also the capital contributions suffered a 39% reduction in 2023 compared to the previous year.
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ECLAC
Record number of investment announcements
Despite the outlook recorded in the national accounts, Uruguay He also received a Record number of investment announcements in 2023 and reached $4.562 billion, an increase of 388% compared to the previous year.
The report of the Cepal It mainly points to the $4 billion investment announced by the Chilean-owned company HIF Global for the construction of the green hydrogen production plant in Paysandú. While in the area of mergers and acquisitions, the acquisition of the refrigerator stood out Breeders & Packers Uruguay SA (BPU) by the Brazilian Minerva Foods, for $40 million.
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ECLAC
On the other hand, the country also experienced a significant reduction in outputs of FDI by part of translatin companies —which, at the regional level, experienced a historical record in 2022 to fall by 49% in 2023—, with 185% less of this type of investments. In this sense, the participation of Uruguay in the collection of FDI Latin America and the Caribbean, which had shown strong growth in recent years, fell by 14% last year.
Source: Ambito
