Peru leads Latin America in foreign direct investment: IMF

By March 6, 2015

The IMF released a report showing Peru leads the region in foreign direct investment as a percentage of GDP.

The report, commissioned by the PricewaterhouseCoopers office in Lima, showed foreign direct investment in Peru reached 28 percent in 2014. Peru was followed by Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

PwC’s senior partner in Peru, Esteban Chong, praised Peru for 14 years of consecutive economic growth. He cites Peru for being “one of the most economically liberalized countries in the region,” as well as measures taken by the government to continue growth after an era of high commodity prices, specifically reductions in income tax and increased public spending on infrastructure.

Chong added that improvement was still needed in the reduction of bureaucracy and red tape. “There is still some way to go,” Chong says, “to simplify the long and bureaucratic process of prior approvals and revisions of operations of exploration and exploitation of natural resources, as well as infrastructure works. The objective is for said process to be more dynamic and for the phases prior to the start-up of these activities to be completed as quickly as possible.”

Chong cites Bloomberg Markets Magazine’s ranking of Peru as seventh in the world’s most attractive emerging markets for investment behind China, South Korea, Malaysia, Chile, Thailand and Panama.

The report also highlights the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings, which Peru ranked second in Latin America, behind Colombia and ahead of Mexico, Chile and Uruguay.

Sources:

2015 Doing Business and Investing in Peru (PwC)

Fondo Monetario: Perú lidera nivel de inversión en términos de PBI en la región (Andina)

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