Brazil surpasses China in direct investments from EU
Folha de S. Paulo - 05/20/2008
Brazil received more direct investments from the EU (European Union) than from China last year. The total of investments of the European block in Brazil was US$ 11.01 billion, whereas in China such amount reached US$ 2.79 billion, informed yesterday Eurostat, the statistics agency of the block. Brazil's position in the Bric (group of emerging countries that, besides Brazil, includes Russia, India, and China), however, was not so positive: the country remained in the third position - only ahead of China. Russia received US$ 26.5 billion in investments from the European Union, and India, US$ 16.9 billion. In 2006, Brazil was also in third place among the Brics, but then it was ahead of India. In that year, Brazil received US$ 8.37 billion in European investments, whereas India received 2.5 billion, amount corresponding to US$ 3.87 billion. In other words: the investments from the European Union in Brazil grew 31.5% between 2006 and 2007, while in India the expansion was 336%. China, on its turn, received US$ 9.3 billion in 2006, a fall equivalent to 70%. Since Russia received US$ 16.6 billion from the European Union in 2006, its growth last year was 59.8%. The country from the European Union that invested in Brazil the most last year was Spain, with US$ 3.87 billion, followed by France and Germany, with US$ 1.7 billion each. The main destination of the Brazilian investments in the European Union was Denmark, which received US$ 1.39 billion. The country invested US$ 155 million in Brazil in 2007. Spain, on its turn, received US$ 1.08 billion in investments from Brazil last year.