Nicaragua Boasts Record Foreign Investment. Two Thirds Is Profit That Never Left
Business
Key Facts
—The headline. Nicaragua drew $1.5 billion of foreign direct investment in 2025, third among six Central American countries.
—The catch. The UN’s regional commission says 63% of that was profit reinvested by firms already in the country, not fresh capital.
—The tourists. Nicaragua counted about one million visitors in 2025, against more than 1.7 million in 2017.
—The neighbour. El Salvador recorded roughly four times as many arrivals in the same year.
—The airport gap. In early 2022 some 75,000 people flew into Managua and never flew out, continuing overland toward the United States.
—The fall. Tourism receipts dropped by a third in the first quarter of 2025 as those crossings dried up.
Nicaragua foreign investment reached its highest level in five years in 2025, and almost two thirds of it was money that companies operating there had already earned and chose not to take home—a pattern our reporting has tracked since at least 2022, when reinvested profit similarly dominated the headline figure.
The figure the government points to is one thousand five hundred and three million dollars. That places Nicaragua third among six Central American economies.
The Economic Commission for Latin America, a United Nations body, looked underneath it. Sixty-three percent was reinvested profit rather than capital arriving from outside.
What Nicaragua foreign investment actually consists of
Reinvested earnings count as foreign investment under standard accounting. They represent profits kept in place rather than money crossing a border.
Strip that share out and, on our own arithmetic, at most five hundred and fifty-six million dollars represents anything else. According to the Nicaraguan outlet Articulo 66, the commission also records a marked and continuous slowdown in capital flows over the past five years.
The regional comparison sharpens it. Costa Rica took five thousand one hundred and twenty-one million dollars in the same year, on the back of high-technology and advanced manufacturing.
That is close to four times what Nicaragua attracted. Guatemala also placed ahead, at one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two million.
The tourism figure and the year it is measured from
Nicaragua welcomed about a million international visitors in 2025, its best year since the political crisis that began in 2018. State-aligned outlets put the 2017 total above one million seven hundred thousand.
On our own arithmetic the country remains roughly forty percent below where it stood nine years ago. The five-year window begins after the collapse, not before it.
Next door, El Salvador counted around four million visitors last year. The gap between the two is now the widest on the isthmus.
Nicaragua’s tourism agency reports average daily spending of almost fifty-three dollars. El Salvador reports between a hundred and forty and a hundred and fifty, though the two countries measure differently.
Who was in those arrival numbers
Here the central bank’s own balance of payments tells an awkward story. In the first three months of 2022, one hundred and forty-seven thousand passengers landed at Managua’s international airport and only seventy-two thousand left through it.
Some seventy-five thousand people, in a single quarter, went on overland toward the United States. They had been counted on arrival.
By the same quarter of 2025 that gap had shrunk to about nine thousand. Tourism’s contribution to the economy fell by a third over the year, to a hundred and thirteen million dollars in the quarter.
The Nicaraguan daily La Prensa, which now publishes in exile, links the decline to American sanctions on firms that helped move migrants through the country. Ortega’s government has itself said airport arrivals were driving the reported growth.
What the government is building
The tourism institute reports national hotel occupancy up forty-seven percent in the first quarter of this year, with Bluefields on the Caribbean coast running full. Its targets for 2026 include seven hundred and twenty-nine new rooms and four thousand jobs.
Nicaragua entered Asian tourism fairs for the first time in 2025, in Vietnam and China. A Canadian airline ran weekly charters from December through April.
Visitors stay about nine and a half days on average, which is long. The country is a destination rather than a stopover for those who come.
Neither tourism nor foreign investment is what actually carries this economy. Money sent home by Nicaraguans abroad exceeds five thousand million dollars a year, roughly a fifth of national output.
Most of it comes from the United States, which makes American tax and immigration policy a large variable in the country’s finances. Nicaragua has been under US sanctions for years.
The official growth figure for the first quarter of this year exceeded six percent. The World Bank expects about three percent across the full year.
Is Nicaragua foreign investment recovering?
The total ranks third in the region, but nearly two thirds of it is profit already earned inside the country. The UN commission describes flows as decelerating over five years.
Why did tourism revenue fall by a third?
Because a share of earlier arrivals were migrants in transit rather than tourists. When American sanctions ended that traffic, the receipts that had been counted with it went too.
What should an investor watch?
The share of investment that is genuinely new. A country whose foreign capital consists mostly of retained earnings is one where existing firms stay put and few new ones arrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much foreign direct investment did Nicaragua receive in 2025, and how does it rank in Central America?
Nicaragua received $1.503 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025, placing it third among six Central American economies. However, the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America found that 63% of that total was reinvested profit from companies already operating in the country, not fresh capital arriving from outside.
How has Nicaragua's tourism changed compared to 2017 and how does it compare to El Salvador?
Nicaragua counted approximately one million visitors in 2025, a significant decline from more than 1.7 million arrivals recorded in 2017. In the same year, neighboring El Salvador received roughly four times as many tourist arrivals as Nicaragua.
What impact did the decline in overland migration crossings have on Nicaragua's tourism revenue?
In early 2022, around 75,000 people flew into Managua but never flew out, continuing overland toward the United States, which had been inflating arrival figures. As those crossings dried up, tourism receipts dropped by a third in the first quarter of 2025.
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