Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10)— Net inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI) settled at $543 million in July, a substantial drop of 41.4 percent from the year-before $926 million, according to the data released Thursday by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
In June, FDI fell by a bigger rate of 48.5 percent at $430 million. Since the start of this year, monthly net FDI flows posted declines in all months except in February when equity placements and reinvestments pushed up the total.
The cumulative basis, net FDI flows fell by 39.1 percent to $4.12 billion in the January-July period from the year-ago $6.77 billion, according to the BSP data.
Capital that flowed to direct equity and equity fund shares totalled $1.05 billion in the seven-month period, down almost 56 percent from last year’s $2.37 billion. Of this total, equity other than reinvested funds slumped to $459 million from last year’s $1.85 billion.
Behind this big decline was a drop in new investments in direct equity (at $1.03 billion as of July from last year’s $2.03 billion), exacerbated by a surge in capital withdrawals ($569 million in the first seven months this year compared to $180 million in the same period last year).
The top sources of FDI this year so far are Japan, Germany, Singapore, the United States, and South Korea — investments from China are noticeably not among the leaders. These were invested in financial and insurance; real estate; manufacturing; and human health and social work.
