Colombia’s 2010 goal for foreign direct investment (FDI) may not be met, as the divestment of foreign companies continues, reported newspaper El Tiempo on Monday.
The investment goal for 2010 is between $9 billion and $10 billion, but may not be met due to increased divestment of foreign companies.
In the first half of the year, companies took $5.4 billion out of investment in Colombia to be used for capital repayments, and $4.8 billion in profits, said El Tiempo.
In the first half of 2010, the FDI in Colombia was $4.1 billion, falling below the $5 billion reached in the same period last year. According to government statistics, FDI reached $6.7 billion by September of this year, and is expected to exceed the 2009 FDI level of $6.9 billion by the end of October.
Alejandro Gaviria, the Dean of the Economics Department at Universidad de los Andes said that it is possible that most of the disinvestment took place at the beginning of the year, and so long as the trend does not continue, the FDI goal is still attainable.
The central bank estimates that most of FDI goes toward the oil and mining industries, which received around $5.6 billion so far this year.
