Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2025

Against a backdrop of global uncertainty and heightened geopolitical tensions, the report examines how foreign direct investment can help overcome persistent development traps in Latin America and the Caribbean. It evaluates trends and policies to boost investments in energy, mining and digital transformation. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presents the 2025 version of its annual report Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean amid global uncertainty and high geopolitical tension, which are worsening the three development traps facing the region: low capacity for growth; high inequality and low social mobility and cohesion; and weak institutional capacities and ineffective governance. Foreign direct investment (FDI) guided by productive development policies could address these challenges. The first chapter provides an overview of global and regional FDI flows, identifies the main trends by type of investment, sector and origin, and proposes policy guidelines to enhance the impact of FDI on productive transformation. The other two chapters examine FDI trends, challenges and opportunities relating to the energy transition, specifically mining and critical minerals, and to digital transformation, which are among the driving sectors that ECLAC has recommended for prioritization in productive development policies in Latin America and the Caribbean.