• According to the analysis conducted by InvestChile, this is the fourth highest figure for the period in the last 20 years.

Chile’s Central Bank released new data indicating that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows reached US$11.2 billion to June of this year. In June alone, foreign investment inflows to Chile reached US$1.94 billion. The accumulated figure from January to June is the fourth highest for the period between 2003-2023, and is also 5% above the historic average for the last five years (US$10.7 billion).

Despite this, FDI inflows to June were 7% lower than in the previous year, due to the high basis for comparison in recent years (when FDI inflows reached record levels).

The largest component of FDI inflows between January and June was share capital, accounting for US$8.00 billion, followed by reinvested profits, which accounted for US$5.64 billion. Meanwhile, debt instruments reported a negative inflow of US$2.46 billion, due to amortizations being higher than new issues.

InvestChile also noted that all of these figures are preliminary, and will be reviewed by the Central Bank on August 18.

Foreign investment remains dynamic

InvestChile Director, Karla Flores, explained that foreign investment remains at healthy levels, as year-on-year decreases in one or two months are not indicative of trends over the year as a whole. “In the last three months, foreign direct investment net inflows have been above US$5 billion, demonstrating that foreign investment remains dynamic and the decrease in June is primarily due to the high basis for comparison,” she said.

“We recently met with German, French, and Spanish companies, and they reaffirmed their interest in investing in Chile in areas such as clean energy, mining services, and technology, among others. This is just an example of the interest that the country is generating among foreign companies, which is maintaining the dynamism of foreign investment inflows,” concluded Flores.