Peru is the third country in the region with investments placed outside of its borders in 2014, after Chile and Mexico, amounting to US$4.45 billion, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reported.
According to the report “Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2015”, published on Wednesday, Peru’s main companies have invested abroad since 2006, when the country started to see higher economic growth and macro-economic stability.
“Between 2006 and 2013, annual investments of Peruvian companies abroad did not exceed US$1.4 billion on average, but the combination of various projects and large-scale acquisitions encouraged outflows to reach a historic high in 2014,” ECLAC informed.
Peruvian companies’ investments abroad increased almost fourfold in 2014, after totaling US$4.45 billion last year compared to US$1.15 billion in 2013, recording a 286% growth.
According to ECLAC, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of Peruvian companies is concentrated in the mining sector and in the manufacture of food products.
ECLAC highlights the expansion of Hochschild Group –dedicated to the extraction and production of gold and silver with subsidiaries in Argentina, Mexico and Chile, where it has been recently awarded a project that will entail an investment of about US$1 billion.
Other notable companies included Minsur, Aje, Gloria, Alicorp and Unacem.
Besides Peru, the region’s main investors abroad were Chile (US$12.052 billion dollars) and Mexico (US$7.610 billion).
(END) JCC/JJN/RMB/MVB
Published: 5/27/2015