Foreign investment in Colombia reached the dizzy heights of $11.8 billion by August this year representing a growth of 20.39% from the same period in 2011, said a report from Colombia’s central bank according to newspaper El Espectador on Monday.
In just August of 2011 foreign investments in the country reached $9.8 billion, which itself was a massive increase from the same month in 2010 when foreign investments were a meager $6.4 billion, showing that investments have been steadily growing over the past couple of years.
According to the report, the Minister of Commerce and Tourism said he hoped foreign investment would reach $13.5 billion by the end of 2012, an aspiration which will be easily realized if the figures for the next four months match those for August of this year, which registered $1.2 billion in direct foreign investment.
The massive foreign investment is centered on petrol, oil and mining, which have received $9.6 billion so far this year, showing a 16.8% increase from the same period of the previous year. By the end of the 2011 the total foreign investment in these activities reached $12.2 billion.
For sectors other than oil and mining, the foreign investment up to August has amounted to $2.2 billion, while for the same period in 2011 it was only $1.6 billion in these sectors and reached $2.8 billion for the whole year.
