Net inflows of foreign direct investments in March declined 14 percent to $586 million from $681 million a year ago, due mainly to lower net equity capital investments, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Monday.
“This developed on account of the decline in net equity capital investments, as placements dropped to $126 million from $351 million in March 2018,” the central bank said in a statement.
Equity capital placements during the month came mostly from Japan, the United States, Singapore, and The Netherlands. The placements were largely invested in manufacturing, real estate, accommodation and food service, wholesale and retail trade and arts, entertainments and recreation industries.
Meanwhile, non-residents’ investments in debt instruments (consisting mainly of loans extended by parent companies abroad to their local affiliates) rose 36 percent to $399 million from $294 million last year.
Reinvestment of earnings increased 14.4 percent to $80 million from $70 million in March 2018.
Net inflows of FDI in the first quarter fell 15 percent to $1.9 billion from $2.3 billion a year ago, resulting from the lower net inflows of net equity capital amounting to $295 million from $887 million last year.
Equity capital placements declined to $568 million from $996 million, while withdrawals increased to $273 million from $109 million.
Equity capital infusions during the period came mainly from Japan, China, the United States, Singapore, and South Korea. These were channeled largely to financial and insurance, real estate, transportation and storage, manufacturing, and administrative and support service industries.
Net investments in debt instruments, meanwhile, grew 18.6 percent to $1.4 billion from $1.2 billion in the same quarter in 2018.
Reinvestment of earnings rose 11.3 percent to $234 million during the quarter from $211 million in the comparable period last year.
Net inflows of foreign direct investments in 2017 fell 4.4 percent to $9.802 billion from the record $10.256 billion a year ago on the back of lower investments of equity capital for the period.
The full-year number missed the official target of $10.4 billion in net inflows set by the Bangko Sentral in November last year.