Brasilia, Brazil, 29 Jan – Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Brazil reached a new record of US$45 billion in 2008, the highest level since 1947, the Brazilian Central Bank said in Brasilia Monday.

The total amount was 30 percent higher than the US$34.5 billion posted in 2007, despite a significant drop in the last quarter of 2008, as a result of the financial crisis, the monetary authority said in a statement.

The 2008 results exceeded the Central Bank’s projections of US$40 billion.

Last year total FDI accounted for 2.84 percent of Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a small rise in relation to 2007 (2.59 percent).

In their turn, direct investments by Portuguese companies in Brazil doubled in 2008 against 2007, to US$1.051 billion, the Central Bank said.

Portugal became Brazil’s 12th largest investor in 2008, as compared to 14th in 2007, with investments accounting for 2.4 percent of the total.

The biggest investors in Brazil in 2008 were the United States (US$7.047 billion), Luxembourg (US$5.932 billion), the Netherlands (US$4.639 billion), Japan (US$4.099 billion) and Spain (US$3.851 billion), followed by France, the Cayman Islands, Canada, Australia, the Bahamas, Germany and Portugal. (macauhub)