• “The amount recorded for January shows that foreign investment continues to be active,” said InvestChile managing director Andrés Rodríguez.

Chile’s Central Bank reported this morning that Chile received US$1.6 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in January. This is 110% higher than the US$764 million recorded for January 2021. It continues the positive trend noted in late 2021 and is 4% higher than the average for Q4 2021.

Investment flows into Chile in January were fueled by trade-related lending of US$1 billion, while shares in equity capital totaled US$323 million and reinvested earnings US$ 269 million.

InvestChile managing director Andrés Rodríguez stated that while it is too soon to forecast FDI behavior for 2022 “the good results in January show that foreign investment continues to be active and that the number of businesses that are looking at Chile or have already set up here to develop their investment projects is continuing to grow.”

“InvestChile will continue to work to attract foreign investment that will help stimulate the economy, especially given the challenging global environment we are currently experiencing,” he added.

Rodríguez explained that foreign direct investment involves projects that take years of planning and whose implementation involves passing through various stages and this can impact the figures from one month to the next.  The figure for January is in line with the average for January during the period 2003-2021, which is US$1.7 billion.