- investments have restarted after the pandemic, even in Latin america, but not enough to make it avoid the last place among the continents on the planet. Or at least, not in Spanish-speaking Latin America, given that the only country to have recorded a boom in foreign capital in 2022, according to official data from Cepal (UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), was The Brazil. In fact, the South American continent has little to celebrate: last year the global flow of direct foreign investments amounted to 1,29 trillion dollars, with an increase of 11% compared to the previous year, but of these only 224,58 billions of dollars have arrived in that part of the world between Mexico and the Strait of Magellan. In fact, at the expense of a 55,2% increase compared to 2021, Latin America is still bringing up the rear of the planet: it collects just 8% of global foreign direct investments, behind North America, Europe, Middle East, Pacific Asia and also Africa, on which the investments of a power such as China are increasingly being diverted.
Brazil and China: a growing partnership
In truth, Beijing has also got its hands on South America in recent years, but it has done so above all in Brazil: the country governed by Lula, in fact, has seen foreign direct investments almost double between 2021 and 2022 (+97%), and receives 41% of foreign capital destined for the entire area, far ahead of the Mexico which took just 17% of the pie (growing by 14%) and even less went to Chile (9%), Colombia (8%), Argentina (7%) and Perù (5%). Much of the success of the Brazil it is precisely due to the China, who made the Portuguese-speaking country his own preferred business partner worldwide, actually already in 2021: after the decline in 2020, the increase was 208%, with the total value in the calendar year at almost 6 billion dollars, the highest figure since 2017, when they were 8,8 billion but with the same number of projects. And even on that occasion it was a question of colossal projects, focused above all in the fields of energy, telecommunications, but also industry and infrastructure. Investments that have in part been blocked by the new government Squid for fear of selling off some of the country's strategic assets, such as the commercial port of Santos, one of the largest on the continent, and the Post Office.
Latin America, record foreign direct investment in 2022
In Brazil, already in 2021, 14% of the total Chinese investments outside the national territory, but also in other South American countries Beijing paid 30% more capital, compared to an increase of only 3,9% in other areas of the world. However, this was not enough for Latin America to conquer a higher market share than other continents, which for various reasons continue to be ahead of it in the preference of large public and private investors. L'Africa, as well asAsia-Pacific (particularly South-East Asia) has even more room for growth: those of South America are instead mature economies and too dependent on commodities (and therefore on market fluctuations) and on the geopolitical instability of the area. Just to mention recent events, the coup in Peru and tensions in Bolivia, Colombia and in the same Brazil, not to mention that in October we vote in Argentina and the session promises sparks, with the possible victory of the far right. On the other hand, the 2022 result for Latin America was still from record: it was in fact since 2013 that foreign direct investments did not exceed 200 billion dollars. The M&A operations increased by only 7%, but the services, energy (also green) and industry sectors benefited above all from the new flow of foreign capital.
