Foreign investment in Venezuela declines in the third quarter

The country ranks last in Latin America in attracting foreign investments

When Jorge Giordani was the chief architect of Venezuela's economic model and was still in charge of the Ministry of Planning, he said emphatically in the middle of last year that "if the private sector does not invest, others will come and they are going to invest for them."

Nevertheless, the Venezuelan economy goes in an opposite direction. The balance of payments reported by the Central Bank of Venezuela at the end of the third quarter showed that foreign investments, a useful tool for acquiring technology, create jobs and diversify exports, has been reduced from levels that were already quite low.

In the third quarter of 2008, Venezuela shows a disinvestment of USD 572 million; that is, the outflows exceeded the inflows.

Considering the results of the first half of the year, the country's accumulated foreign investments totaled USD 1.94 billion by the end of September, a dwarf figure compared to the sums invested in the region, even amid the economic imbalances caused by the global financial crisis.

For instance, Colombia attracted USD 5.42 billion in foreign investments in the first semester of the year whereas Mexico attracted USD 10.5 billion.