Mexico’s FDI Grows 48% During 1Q23: Ministry of Economy

Mexico’s recent nearshoring boom has been reflected in the country’s 1Q23 foreign direct investment (FDI) results, reports the Ministry of Economy (SE). Mexico keeps positioning itself as one of the world’s beneficiaries of supply chain relocation. 

The ministry, through its National Register for Foreign Direct Investments (RNIE), announced that the country received a total of US$18.6 billion during 1Q23 in FDI, a year-to-year growth of 48%. This year’s FDI is the largest since 2006, explained the ministry via a press release. “The behavior observed in 1Q23 represents the confidence of investors to maintain and expand their investments in the country,” explains SE.

The ministry attributed Mexico’s performance to 1,387 Mexican societies with foreign capital participation and 863 trust contracts. SE highlighted that 90% of Mexico 1Q23 FDI represented profit reinvestment worth US$16.7 billion, followed by 5% from new investments and accounts between companies. 

Aeroméxico’s restructuring plan and the merger between Televisa and Univision brought the country’s FDI up to US$19.4 billion during 1Q22. However, the ministry of economy noted that both cases accounted for US$6.8 billion and that those were considered “extraordinary investments.”

Mexico’s major commercial ally continues to be the US, which was the most important investor with a total of US$6.4 billion, followed by Spain with US$3.7 billion, Argentina with US$1.7 billion and the Netherlands with US$1.6 billion. Mexico’s FDI targeted mainly five states, which received 67% of the total. Mexico City led the country with 38% of the total, followed by Nuevo Leon with 13%, Jalisco with 6%, Puebla with 5% and the State of Mexico with 5%.

The manufacturing industry in Mexico received 53% of all FDI, which were distributed for transport equipment, the chemical industry, the agribusiness industry, computational equipment, electric energy generation equipment, metals and for the alcohol and tobacco industry. The financial services sector ranked second with 33% of the total investments, worth up to US$6 billion. 

“The statistics are periodically updated due to extemporaneous notifications made by companies to the National Registry of Foreign Investments,” explains SE.