From rain to drought: foreign investment is among the lowest in the region

From the beginning of his term, Mauricio Macri The main objective of his international policy was to promotion of Argentina for the receipt of investments of external origin. Just a year ago, at the opening of the ordinary sessions of Congress, the President reiterated his promise of a "rain" of investments to energize the economy.

The year has pbaded and the president stopped talking about the rush of foreign capital present, instead, the idea of ​​a "storm" What it rocked the country, caused an escalation of the dollar and the highest inflation in 27 years.

In what he does to the Foreign direct investment (FDI), Argentina is closer to a drought than a rain. According to a recent study by the consulting firm DNI, the country has not managed to cope with the wave of investments that has known latin america, and even it has less entrenched capital than in 2001.

The economic report prepared by Marcelo Elizondo warns that Argentina accounts for only 3.4% of total foreign investment accumulated in Latin America, estimated at US $ 2.2 trillion by CEPAL, and is far behind the levels of Brazil (34.8%) and Mexico (24.8%) but also compared to small economiesas Chile (12.6%), Colombia (8.1%) and Peru (4.4%).

So things, Argentina is the only country (excluding Venezuela, for which there is no data) who has not grown up in capital attraction since the beginning of this centurylast year, the arrival of quadrupled funds in the region.

The relationship between the stock of FDI and GDP locate the country last place in south america: anchored capital accounts for 11% of the product, compared to 33% in Brazil and 76% in Uruguay.

Short term, Argentina received about US $ 11,517 million in 2017 according to CEPAL, which represents more than triple what was crazy in 2016and moves the country in figures similar to the average of the last decade. Now well, The DNI estimates that the FDI of 2018 will be about 10,500 million US dollars, implying a further decline of around 8.8%..

The official figures are not promising either: according to the last installment of Investment Monitor, who prepares the monthly Argentine Agency for Investment and International Trade (Aaici) the third quarter of 2018 ended with a downward investment, partly because of rising import costs, which has affected the purchase of machinery and equipment of foreign origin, the decline in activity in the agricultural sector and industrial and rising interest rates, which has reduced access to private sector credit.

Elizondo, author of the report, said that "all that is mentioned shows to Argentina that it is difficult to access what is called" globalization 4.0 ", which positions companies beyond the borders to activate productive, commercial and strategic processes and growth ", while celebrating the government's constant concern to promote the arrival of investments, despite the meager results.