Agência Brasil*
Brasília – Foreign direct investment in Brazil should reach US$ 2.8 billion this month, according to the head of the economic department of the Brazilian Central Bank (BC), Altamir Lopes. This is due to the fact that, according to him, up to Tuesday (25), investment had already totalled US$ 2.4 billion due to the entry of US$ 1.384 billion due to the purchase of shares of brewery Ambev by brewery Interbrew, from Holland.
If it were not for this, the volume of foreign investment would remain similar to that registered in March, US$ 1.402 billion. The value is double the result for March 2004, which was US$ 703 million. Net investment in stocks of Brazilian companies totalled US$ 854 million, whereas inter company investment totalled US$ 547 million.
According to the BC economist, the good result for March, repeated in April, shows that the return of money to the country productive sector is in full recovery. This is one more reason, according to him, for the bank to restate the US$ 16 billion investment estimate for this year, although the financial market estimate is US$ 14.5 billion.
On announcing the March report regarding the Foreign Sector yesterday, Lopes pointed out the importance of the surplus (positive result) of US$ 3.576 billion in the balance of payments (income and expenses, excluding interest) last month, when current transactions and capital accounts registered positive balances of US$ 1.758 billion and US$ 1.561 billion, respectively. The highlight, once again, was the March trade balance surplus, which totalled US$ 3.349 billion.
*Translated by Mark Ament
