July FDI inflows $307 million from year-ago $493 million: BSP

October 10, 2017

Foreign direct investments (FDI) posted $307 million net inflows in July, lower than the $493 million net inflows recorded in the same month last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Tuesday.

This was mainly due to decline in investments in debt instruments to $105 million from $407 million, which outweighed a more than five-fold increase in net equity capital.

The surge in net equity capital to $131 million was due mainly to the increase in equity capital placements to $170 million, which more than compensated for the withdrawals of $39 million.

Equity capital infusions in July came mostly from Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan.  These were invested mainly in manufacturing; real estate; wholesale and retail trade; financial and insurance; and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply activities.

Meanwhile, reinvestment of earnings expanded by 11.5 percent to $71 million in July.

As a result,  FDI net inflows reached $3.9 billion  from January to July, 16.5 percent lower than the $4.7 billion net inflows last year.

Net equity capital registered lower inflows at $272 million from $1.5 billion last year.  Equity capital placements during the period came mainly from Singapore, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

These were infused largely in real estate; manufacturing; financial and insurance; electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply; and wholesale and retail trade activities.  Investment in debt instruments increased by 13.9 percent to $3.1 billion from $2.8 billion last year. Reinvestment of earnings also expanded by 9.3 percent to $487 million during the period. DMS