Foreign investment inflows drop 48.5% in June

by Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star) – Sept 12, 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Net inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI) fell by 48.5 percent to $430 million in June from $836 million in the same month last year due to the worsening trade war between the US and China, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Based on a report from BSP, equity placements plunged by nearly 65 percent to $73 million in June from $208 million in the same month last year.

The bulk of capital inflows cam from Singapore, the US, Japan, the Netherlands and China and were channeled to real estate, manufacturing, financial and insurance, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply as well as transportation and storage industries.

On the other hand, the BSP said equity withdrawals more than doubled to $49 million from $24 million.

The BSP also attributed the decline to the 44.4 percent decrease in non-residents’ investments in debt instruments consisting mainly of loans extended by parent coampanies abroad to their local affiliates to $317 million from $570 billion.

On the other hand, reinvestment of earnings climbed by 8.3 percent to $89 million from $82 million.

From January to June, the BSP said net FDI inflows declined by 38.8 percent to $3.57 billion from $5.84 billion in the same period last year.

Equity placements from Japan, the US, Singapore, China and South Korea fell 50.8 percent to P860 million from January to June compared to $1.75 billion in the same period last year.

The industries that benefited from said capital infusions were financial and insurance, real estate, manufacturing, transportation and storage as well as administrative and support service.

On the other hand, pullout of investments more than tripled to $499 million in the first semester from $163 million in the same period last year.

In addition, net investments in debt instruments stood at $2.7 billion down from $3.8 billion, while reinvestment of earnings increased by 12.1 percent to $507 million from $453 million.

The BSP slashed the net FDI inflow target for 2019 to $9 billion.