Last year, projects in this sector received $30bn less than in 2015, an effective drop of 6.2%. This means that infrastructure investment fell to just 1.5% of GDP, a level not seen since 2000, which is when the consultancy first began keeping records.
According to Frederico Turolla, one of the partners at Pezco Microanalysis, such a figure is barely sufficient to restore capital depreciation. Indeed, in 2015, the same figure had been just 1.7% of GDP.
The transport sector actually saw an increase in investment during 2016 of 2.8%, although this was due almost entirely to existing projects that continued to absorb capital through the year.
Ports, nevertheless, struggled to attract major investment, since government instability and bureaucratic hurdles stalled many of the projected concessions, leaving investors reluctant to bid.