Business and Economy
Foreign direct investments to PHL jump to USD 6.97 B in end-November ’16
Placements in debt instruments boosted foreign direct investments (FDI) to the Philippines to reach USD 6.97 billion as end of November 2016, up 25.4 percent from the USD 5.56 billion during the same period the previous year, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)on Friday show. (Photo by Allan Ajifo [CC BY 2.0)
BSP said, ”The continued FDI inflows were buoyed by investors’ confidence in the economy on the back of sound macroeconomic fundamentals and sustained growth potential.”
Placements in debt instruments amounted to USD4.48 billion, up 44.4 percent than year-ago’s USD3.10 billion.
Equity placements amounted to USD2.4 billion, down by 7.3 percent from the USD2.57 billion same period in end-November 2015.
These came mostly from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, and Taiwan and placed in financial and insurance; arts, entertainment and recreation; manufacturing; real estate; and construction activities.
Investments in debt instruments in the 11th month last year reached USD544 million, higher than the previous year’s USD185 million and month-ago’s USD296 million.
For the month of November alone, FDIs inflows grew to USD 756 million, up 59.4 percent from USD 474 million in November 2015.
Last November’s FDIs were also more than double the USD342 million the previous month of October.
The equity inflows, on the other hand, remained higher than the withdrawals amounting to USD555 million last November. Withdrawals in end-November 2015 were higher at USD805 million.
Equity and investment fund shares amounted to USD212 million, lower than the USD289 in November 2015 but higher than last October’s USD117 million.
Total equity placements last November amounted to USD437 million, higher than the USD246 million a year ago and the USD84 million last October.
The BSP said bulk of these inflows came from Hong Kong, the US, Taiwan, Germany, and Czech Republic and placed mainly in arts, entertainment and recreation; financial and insurance; real estate; wholesale and retail trade; and professional, scientific and technical activities.
However, withdrawals to date is higher at USD283 million from year-ago’s USD10 million and the USD24 million last October. This brought the net equity investments to USD154 million, lower than the USD236 million in November 2015 but higher than the USD60 million in October 2016.
