Brazil received $5.34 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) during the first quarter of 2009, down 39.2 percent from the same period in 2008, the country's central bank has said.

The numbers got worse in March, when FDI totalled $1.44 billion, less than half the figure of $3.08 billion during the same month in 2008 and the worst result for the month since 2005, the bank said Wednesday.

Brazil received a record $45.06 billion in FDI in 2008. The central bank's forecast for this year is that that total will be reduced by almost half, to about $25 billion.

Despite the fall in foreign investment in productive projects, the funds allocated for the purchase of securities grew and the country wound up with a positive figure of $481 million on the balance sheet between the inflow and outflow of dollars in the financial markets.

Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, ended the first quarter of this year with a net outflow of nearly $3.5 billion in foreign portfolio investment.