The Global Opportunity Index (GOI) 2025 report focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. In recent years, the LAC region has become a popular destination for foreign capital, attracting almost half (48.9 percent) of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to emerging and developing (E&D) economies in 2023 and suring the FDI inflows to E&D Asia. Based on project announcements, LAC countries are likely to remain an attractive investment target. In 2023, the value of announced projects targeting the LAC region grew by 16 percent, driven by several megaproject announcements in the renewable energy, metals and minerals, and automotive and auto parts sectors. This report provides an overview of LAC’s main strengths and vulnerabilities through the lens of our GOI and its various components, which reflect key business, legal, and regulatory policies that affect investments. In addition, we offer an in-depth look at the composition and evolution of Latin America’s global capital inflows, emphasizing the role played by FDI and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in stabilizing the region’s flows of investment. This is the first time the GOI has been used to examine LAC’s attractiveness to investors using data from after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- There has been a post-pandemic shift in capital flows to emerging and developing (E&D) economies, with more capital flowing to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and E&D Europe. LAC attracted almost half of FDI inflows and a third of all capital invested in E&D economies in recent years.
- The strong inflows of capital to LAC are evidence of the importance of the abundance of natural and human resources. Latin American countries have made considerable investments in education in recent years, with countries like Mexico emerging as leaders in the growth rate of STEM workers.
- Access to financing is crucial for countries to develop a dynamic innovation economy, which will be key for attracting capital inflows in years to come. Brazil provides a good case in point. The country ranks 29th in financial services and 24th in innovation on the GOI, with São Paulo having evolved into a major global science and technology cluster.
