Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 09/2009

Outward investment by Trans-Latin enterprises: reasons for optimism

Michael Mortimore, Carlos Razo

August 2009

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Abstract

Outward FDI by Latin American firms grew by more than 40% in 2008 over the preceding year, to USD 35 billion, the global crisis notwithstanding. The picture for 2009 is less clear, what with the expected regional GDP contraction, falling commodity prices, and tightening credit markets. Nonetheless, the authors argue that many countervailing factors - the slow-maturing nature of natural-resource projects, the stability of demand in consumer goods, and the public-sector promotion of investment in infrastructure - make Latin American investment more resilient in the crisis than other regions may be.