Mexico 1H Foreign Direct Invest Up 52.4% To $13.24B

Foreign direct investment in Mexico rose by 52.4% in the first half of this year to $13.24 billion, the Economy Ministry said Tuesday.

Deputy Economy Minister Carlos Arce said at a press conference that the investment was the most ever for the first half of a year, and that the ministry has raised its estimate for full-year FDI to $23 billion from its previous forecast of $18.3 billion.

That would be the second-largest amount of foreign direct investment ever, he said.

Mexico's foreign direct investment in 2001 was about $27 billion, when Citigroup Inc. (C) bought Mexico's Banamex for $12.5 billion.

Arce said the latest figures indicate "that the management of the economy is correct, that investors have confidence, and that they see Mexico as an attractive country."

The ministry is constantly revising its historical figures, and the first-half investment number is up 39.2% from the $9.51 billion that has been registered for the first half of 2006 through the end of August, Arce said.

The ministry said that in the first six months of this year, 43.3% of the foreign direct investment, or $5.74 billion, was new investment, while 35.4%, or $4.69 billion, was transfers among companies, and 21.2%, or $2.81 billion, was due to reinvestment of profits.

The U.S. was the main source of FDI in the first half, with 60.7%, followed by Spain.

Of the total, 44.2% went into manufacturing, 29% into financial services, and 8.9% into commerce, the ministry reported.