United States and Spain remain top investors in Argentina

The United States and Spain remain top investors in Argentina, says a Central Bank report.

As of March 31, Argentina’s total foreign direct investment (FDI) was US$134.025 billion.

The United States was the largest investor, contributing US$25.821 billion, or 19% of the total.

Spain was the second-largest investor with US$21.177 billion, or 16%; the Netherlands was third with US$16.430 billion, or 12%.

These rankings have not changed since 2016, when the Central Bank published an FDI report.

In the first three months of this year, Argentina received US$3.829 billion in FDI, a 2% increase from last year.

Most of this investment was in the form of debt transactions (US$1.901 billion) and reinvestment of profits (US$1.780 billion). Capital contributions were $162 million.

During this period, there were also US$16 million in net outflows for mergers and acquisitions.

Most of the FDI in the first quarter went to the financial-banking sector (US$1.227 billion), followed by the manufacturing industry (US$1.114 billion), and the mining sector (US$554 million).

The main sources of FDI in the first quarter were the United States US($973 million), Brazil (US$876 million), and Spain (US$633 million), followed by Uruguay (US$246 million), China (US$162 million), and France (US$156 million).