Direct investment reaches US$ 45 billion in 2008
Folha de S. Paulo - 01/27/2009
The inflow of foreign direct investments to Brazil exceeded the Government expectations and reached US$ 45 billion last year, according to the data of the Central Bank. It is the biggest amount ever registered by the statistics series of the BC (Central Bank), which started in 1947, and represents an increase of 30% over the previous record, set in 2007. A report released by the UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) last week estimated the flow of 2008 at US$ 41.7 billion. The forecast of the BC was US$ 40 billion. According to the head of the Economic Department of the BC, Altamir Lopes, the estimates were exceeded due to the result above expectations in December, when the country received US$ 8.1 billion in investments. This value, however, was inflated in US$ 3 billion by an operation made by the CSN, which closed the sale of part of one of its subsidiaries of the mining sector to a consortium of Asian companies. Nonetheless, Lopes emphasizes that, even without taking this operation into account, the flow of investments to Brazil last year would set a new record. For the BC official, that is a sign the country is in conditions to go through the current crisis with some tranquility. "This kind of investor has a long-term perspective and foresees a better situation for the future", he said. In spite of the relevance of this result for the balance of the external accounts, the figures show that currently the weight the foreign investors have on the behavior of the economy is smaller than it was in a recent past. In 2008, foreign investments received by Brazil corresponded to 2.84% of the GDP, whereas in 2001 the ratio reached 4.06%. For Zeina Latif, chief-economist of the ING bank, this shows the Brazilian economy is still much closed. According to her, such small level of opening prevented the country from growing more in the last years, while the world situation was more favorable, but that may also help the country face the current crisis with some more vigor. For Newton Rosa, chief-economist of Sul America Investimentos, one of the doubts regards the external accounts this year is the flow of foreign investments in the financial market and in the capacity of the Brazilian companies to resume raising funds abroad.