On Thursday, he Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) reported that Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Central America grew 3.7% during 2016 and totaled $ 11.833 million.
The increase in investments to the two main recipients of the subregion -Panama, which concentrated 44%, and Costa Rica, with 27% – offset the drop recorded by the other Central American countries.
Last year, Costa Rica obtained revenues of $ 3.18 billion, which translates into an increase of 1.1% compared to 2015.
According to ECLAC, the investment showed a clearly increasing trend until 2013 and then stabilized around $ 3 billion. Inter-company loans and reinvestment of profits accounted for 80% of FDI (42% and 38%, respectively) and increased compared to 2015, while capital inflows fell for the fourth consecutive year (this time a 4% %) and concentrated 20%.
Sectoral information is available only for 2015 and shows that the services, manufacturing and real estate sectors are the ones that attracted the most FDI to Costa Rica, with shares of 29%, 28% and 11%, respectively.
The United States has remained the main investor in Costa Rica, concentrating half of FDI revenues in 2015.
The countries of the European Union accounted for 28%, with a high share of the Netherlands (17%), which makes it difficult to identify the initial origin of the funds, and a smaller share of Germany and Spain (Both with 4% of the total). 17% of the investment originated in Latin America, mainly in Colombia (5%) and Mexico (4%).