Net FDIs hit $597M in April

Job-creating foreign money continued to flow into the Philippines in April as the country’s growth prospects remained bright despite the financial market turmoil that sent short-term investors fleeing for safer havens.

This was driven by multinationals lending money to their local subsidiaries and affiliates to fund the expansion of existing operations—a sign of continued confidence in the local economy.

“The sustained increase in net inflows continued to reflect strong investor confidence in the country’s solid macroeconomic fundamentals,” the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Thursday.

Net inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI) reached $597 million in April, rising more than four-fold from a year ago, BSP data showed. For the first four months of the year, FDIs reached $2.4 billion, closing in on the BSP’s official forecast for the year of $2.6 billion. Paolo G. Montecillo