• The Central Bank has made an upward correction to its preliminary figure, raising it by US$1,132 million.

In Chile’s National Accounts published in March, the Central Bank has corrected its preliminary figure for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Chile in 2019, raising it to US$11,928 million, equivalent to growth of 63% on 2018. This represented an increase of US$1,132 million on the figure of US$10,797 million published in February.

The Central Bank also made an upward correction to the figure for FDI entering Chile in 2018. This now reaches US$7,323 million, up from the US$6,082 million initially reported. The review also affected the figures for 2015, 2016 and 2017, but the changes were not significant. This implies that the growth of FDI in 2018 compared to 2017 was 19%, rather than the 4% previously reported.

“The figures for 2019 put us on a good footing for 2020, which will be a difficult year for investment worldwide, as organizations such as UNCTAD have already warned; it is forecasting a drop in FDI of between 5% and 15% globally due to Covid-19. In the midst of global turbulence, InvestChile will focus its work on overseas companies that are already in our country to support them in this health emergency that affects the entire world,” said the director of InvestChile, Cristián Rodríguez.

In the case of the components of FDI in Chile in 2019, the correction reduced equity by US$706 million and increased reinvestment of profits and related borrowing by US$1,164 million and US$673 million, respectively. The breakdown indicates that equity accounted for 51% of total FDI during the year, reinvestment of profits for 37% and related borrowing for 12%.