FDI to Latin America Plummeted in 2014

From CEPAL:

Flows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) towards Latin America and the Caribbean declined 16% in 2014 to total $158.803 billion dollars, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) revealed today. This result reverses the growth trend seen during the last decade—with the exception of declines in 2006 and 2009—since a further reduction is forecast for this year.

That's a significant contraction. If you look more closely, you should be reminded of what I repeat constantly, which is that there is no clear correlation with ideology. Mexico and Venezuela are way down, while Ecuador and Guatemala are up.

And this is also not new:

“ECLAC believes that Latin American and Caribbean countries’ policies should not be oriented towards recovering the amounts of Foreign Direct Investment achieved in the last decade, but rather towards attracting the FDI that contributes to productive diversification,” said the Executive Secretary of the regional organization, Alicia Bárcena. “This means articulating FDI with industrial policies and national development strategies based on equality and environmental sustainability.”

Productive diversification and sustainability. So simple yet so difficult.