The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was happy to report that the foreign direct investments (FDIs) for the period January-to-August 2018 reached $7.4 billion which is about 31-percent jump from the $5.7 billion in the same period last year.
The long-term equity capital ploughed into the country by foreign investors continued its uninterrupted uptrend during the first eight months of the year, ignoring the volatility in short-term financial markets, the central bank said on Monday.
Just for the month of August alone, the Foreign Direct Investment was recorded to $752 million but the 41.2-percent lower than the $1.3 billion in net inflows recorded in the same period last year. All foreign investment components registered positive balances, inflows were lower than the levels posted in August 2017.
“The Inflows remained strong due to the continued positive investor sentiment on the Philippine economy on the back of the country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals and growth prospects,” Central Bank said.
In particular, the net equity capital investments for the first eight months grew more than twice to $2 billion from $990 million in 2017. This resulted as equity capital placements increased by 63.7 percent to $2.2 billion, while withdrawals declined by 45.9 percent to $196 million.
Most of the capital infusions during the period came mainly from Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, Japan and China. These investments were mostly channeled into firms engaged in manufacturing, financial and real estate, arts, entertainment and recreation, and electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply activities.
The bulk of the FDl net inflows for the month of August was in the form of investments in debt instruments mainly of inter-company borrowings/lending between foreign direct investors and their subsidiaries/affiliates in the Philippines which has reached $534 million.
