FDI registers $531m net inflows in November, down 45.9% from year-ago figure

February 11, 2019

Foreign direct investments (FDI) recorded net inflows of $531 million in November 2018, down  45.9 percent than the $982 million net inflows posted in November 2017, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.

The decline was due largely to the drop in net investments in debt instruments (consisting mainly of intercompany borrowings/lending between foreign direct  investors and their subsidiaries/affiliates in the Philippines), which amounted to $333 million from $724 million in the same month in 2017.

Net investments of equity capital registered $137 million, which was 31.9 percent lower than the $202 million net equity capital inflows in November 2017.

Equity capital placements in November were largely from Taiwan, the United States, Thailand, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

These investments were channeled mostly to: financial and insurance, electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply, manufacturing, and  real estate activities.

Reinvestment of earnings rose by 9.5 percent to $61 million in November . 

As a result of these developments, FDI registered $9.1 billion net inflows in January-November 2018, 3.2 percent lower than the $9.4 billion in the same  period in 2017.

Lower net inflows were due mainly to the 28.3 percent decline in net investments of equity capital, which reached $2.1 billion from January to November of 2018. 

Equity capital placements during the period - mostly from Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, Japan, and China-were invested mainly in; manufacturing; financial and insurance, real estate,  arts, entertainment and recreation, and electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply activities.

Meanwhile, net investments in debt instruments grew by 9.3 percent to reach $6.2 billion from $5.7 billion in the same period last year. Reinvestment of earnings also increased by 2.8 percent to $738 million. DMS