Foreign investments up 123.5% in January

FOREIGN investments in job-creating projects that flowed in last January more than doubled year-on-year to $587 million on sustained investor confidence in the country despite upcoming elections and an impending change in the administration, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data released Monday showed.

Inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) at the start of the year rose by 123.5 percent from $263 million in the same month last year, as the BSP noted that “all FDI components recorded increases.”

On a month-on-month basis, the amount of FDIs that came in last January was the highest in four months.

The BSP said the jump in FDIs “[signaled] investor optimism in the growth potential of various local industries, as well as confidence in the country’s sound macroeconomic fundamentals.”

In January, net equity capital inflows grew by more than tenfold to $257 million as equity capital placements increased nearly five times to $260 million while withdrawals reached only $3 million, down 87.5 percent year-on-year.

According to the BSP, equity capital placements came mostly from the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States.

The majority of the foreign equity capital investments were poured into the following sectors: electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply; financial and insurance; information and communication activities; manufacturing, and real estate.

Net investments in debt instruments rose 54.3 percent to $257 million from $167 million a year ago.

Reinvestment of earnings also went up 3.7 percent year-on-year to $73 million.

By the end of this year, the BSP expects FDI inflows to reach $6.3 billion and exceed the $5.72 billion posted in 2015.

Last year’s cumulative net inflows of FDIs were 0.3-percent below the $5.74 billion recorded in 2014 and short of the $6-billion target for that year.