U.S. investment in the Latin American economy

United States direct private in vestments abroad are in excess of $22 billion and currently expanding at a record rate. To understand the contribution of this large capital growth to the economies of foreign countries and the United States, it is necessary to have reliable measures of the productive and related activi ties associated with this investment. These include the important direct and indirect effects of the operations of the enterprises on all items in the balance of international payments, and their effects on the flow of national income, employment and governme venues within the countries in which such investments have a significant role in economic developments.

This survey measures, for the first time, the broad effects of United States direct investments in Latin America, where about one-third of all such United States foreign invest ments have been made. While con fined to one major area of the world, the results are typical of the general economic benefits which accrue to the economies of foreign countries from such investments in productive enterprises,