UN Warns Direct Foreign Investment in Latin America is Running Amok

According to a recent report issued by the United Nations on trade and development, direct foreign investment in Latin America and the Caribbean fell down in 2003 for a fourth year in a row, tallying a meager $48.7 billion in the region´s forty-largest economies.

Stacked up against 2002, when the region received $50.7 billion worth of direct foreign investment, Latin America and the Caribbean went south in 2003.

Back in 1999, countries in the region churned out $108.5 billion in direct foreign investment, only to skid headlong into a 55 percent shortfall over the past four years.

In Brazil and Mexico, the region´s biggest receivers of foreign investment, cash flow from overseas has been in steep decline, slumping to 39 and 26 percent respectively in 2003. However, other nations like Chile and Venezuela staged significant comebacks last year.