Foreign investment grows 20% in Mexico

Mexico

received USD$9,502 million in Direct Foreign Investment (IED) , on the first quarter of 2018 , making an increase of 19.6% compared to the previous year, which showed an investment of USD$7,945 million , according to the National Record of Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Economy .

With this figure, the foreign capital received during the present six-year term mounted up to USD$181,793 million , which surpasses the six-year goal by 15.4% , according to the National Plan for Development of the current administration.

Out of the amount received during the months of January and March of this year, only 14.4% corresponded to new investments in the country, making up a total of barely USD$1,330 million . Most of these were utility reinvestments , which represented USD$7,297 million . USD$836 million were related to bank accounts between different companies.

As usual, the investments were mostly destined to the manufacturing sector, which received USD$3,344 million (around 35.2% ).

The second most-attractive sector for foreign investment in Mexico during the first quarter were financial services , to which USD$2,831 million were destined ( 29.8% )

The third sector to attract foreign capital was the mining sector with 7.1% ( around 675 million dollars ). The commercial sector was on fourth place, with 6.9% (655 million dollars) , and construction on fifth, with 6% (570 million dollars ).

Most of the investment came from the US , in spite of the recent NAFTA renegotiations . The United States invested a total of USD$4,143 million dollars (43.6%), while Canadian investment was of USD$817 million (8.6%) , followed by investments from Spain , which mounted up to USD$1,777 million (18.6%) . Australia and the Netherlands were also major investors in Mexico during the first quarter of 2018 .

The 9,502 million dollars received from January to March of 2018 were the result of investments from 533 companies with a flow of foreign capital . And although 11,480 million dollars of foreign capital were received, USD$1,978 million made their way back out of the country.

Through a press release, the Ministry of Economy explained that the cumulative volume of foreign investment during this six-year term is 52.3% larger than the value reported six years ago when USD$119,387 million were received.

The Federal Government

, through the Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo , had promised that, as a result of the recent structural reforms in Mexico, at least USD$30,000 million dollars would be received annually. A number that has been reached since the implementation of the reforms.

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