After the legislative elections, with the victory of the Government and under the premise that the exchange rate regime has no problems, the economic team led Luis Caputo Now he wants to focus on attracting investments so that activity rebounds.
According to the latest Foreign Direct Investment report of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), in the second quarter of 2025, the total flow of foreign direct investment was USD 2,866 million. Which represented an increase compared to the first three months of the year, when they were USD 1,015 million and especially the last one in 2024, where it was barely reached USD 90 million.
The figure was largely explained by the Reinvestment of profits: USD 1,684 million about total. The second highest level in more than a year and a half of management of La Libertad Avanza (LLA), only surpassed by the first quarter of 2024, when it was USD 2,347 million.
Below Reinvestment of profits were Debt Transactions, for USD 1,457 million; contributions, USD 977 million; and Mergers and acquisitions, subtracting USD 1,252 million. “Foreign direct investment levels are low in relation to what this economy needs“said the Eco Go economist, Lucio Garay Mendezwith a low real exchange rate that turns the current account negative.
Given the maturity profile of debt in foreign currency, the level of net reserves of the BCRA, indicated that direct foreign investments are needed to boost the capital account. If you want to maintain the current exchange rate scheme.
“Thinking about the monetary program, if remonetization is intended to happen through an injection of pesos resulting from the purchase of foreign currency, it will be difficult for the current account to provide those foreign currencies until April. So, Meanwhile, foreign direct investment needs to be higher”he added.
From January 2024 to June 30, 2025, they entered USD 15,528 million (USD 11,647 million in 2024 and USD 3,881 million from January to June 2025). While in 2023, the figure exceeded USD 24 billion.
However, for Garay Méndez these are two different foreign direct investments, since in 2023 it was inflated by the stocks and the increase in commercial debt. “By not being able to exit, many companies were carrying and taking on debt as they were not able to access the foreign currency necessary to exit. In 2024, With the Bonds for the Reconstruction of a Free Argentina (Bopreal) and other minor measures, this situation is normalized and what you have today is much more genuine“, he highlighted.
To promote the inflow of capital from the first year of office, so that the same thing as in the management of Mauricio Macrithe Government sanctioned the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI).
According to official figures from the Ministry of Economy, to date there are 23 projects for a total USD 50,589 million. The RIGI committee approved several for a sum of USD 24,814 millionwhile others for USD 25,775 million They are under evaluation.
Among the most important approved with the resolution is the Southern Energy project (owned by Pan American Energy (PAE) and Golar LNG to install a barge in the Gulf of San Matías, Río Negro, to produce Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), with an investment of USD 15,156 million in the 20 years of expected useful life.
With the financial assistance of the United States, for the consulting firm Analytica, donald trump seeks greater participation of North American companies in our economy and stops a possible advance of Chinese capital.
“The presence of American capital is not new. In recent years, and until the first quarter of 2025, they acquired the largest participation in the foreign direct investment that our country received, accumulating USD 9,999 million between 2021 and the first quarter of this year”, they noted in the report, which led it to surpass Spain (USD 9,043 million) and to a greater extent to Brazil (USD 6.97 billion).
During the weekend, the version emerged that Caputo had told a group of investors in the United States that was considering making changes to the banding scheme in the next 30 days, which was later denied by official sources from the Ministry of Economy.
This Monday, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputoreceived a group of investors on the fifth floor of the Palacio de Hacienda in a meeting organized by Morgan Stanley. “There is going to be growth, the fiscal surplus is maintained, investments are coming, money is going to come in,” commented one of the agents who participated.
Although others were less optimistic about the economic program and They came to see how things are goingsince although they consider it to be the correct one and there are trained officials in charge, there are never certainties. They are not so clear that the economic team will be able to access international markets before the end of the year.
