Brasília, 6/26/2003 (Agência Brasília - ABr) - So far this month, direct foreign investments in Brazil are running a negative US$54 million. What that means is that more money has left the country than came in. According to the head of the Economic Department at the Central Bank, Altamir Lopes, the cause of the negative result was a single operation: the purchase by Brazil's largest private bank, Bradesco, of the Spanish Banco Bilbao Viscaia (BBV) for US$649 million.

Lopes reports that the Central Bank began tracking direct foreign investments in 1995, and that this is the first negative result since March 1995 (when the negative balance was US$22.1 million).

The problem is that the drop in foreign investments is worldwide, says Lopes, but even so he estimates that the month of June will end with a surplus of US$100 million. As for the year, Central Bank estimates are that direct foreign investments will total US$10 billion, down from an initial estimate of US$16 billion. Last year, direct foreign investments totalled US$16.566 billion. (AB)