Foreign investment pledges down 51.8% to P105.6 billion in 2017

Investment pledges made by foreign firms slid 51.8 percent to P105.6 billion in 2017 after a steep 82.8-percent drop in fourth-quarter commitments, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Thursday.

The latest PSA data showed that foreign investments approved by seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) last year declined from P219 billion in 2016.

The PSA data consisted of approvals made by the following IPAs: Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Board of Investments, BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

IPAs give away fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to investors.

When these foreign investment pledges materialize, usually after a couple of years, they are then counted as foreign direct investment inflows.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, foreign investment commitments dropped to a mere P21.6 billion from P125.7 billion in the same three-month period of 2016.

PSA data showed that foreign investors’ pledges declined year-on-year during five of the first six quarters of the Duterte administration.

It was only in the third quarter of 2017 that foreign firms’ commitments jumped 61.1 percent year-on-year to P43 billion.

However, foreign investment pledges fell 55 percent year-on-year to P18.2 billion in the second quarter, as well as went down 12.8 percent to P22.9 billion in the first quarter of last year.

Also, approved foreign investments declined 9.3 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2016 after commitments dropped by a faster 45 percent to P26.7 billion in the third quarter.

But when combined with commitments from local investors, total IPA approvals in 2017 reached P911.3 billion, up 32.9 percent from P685.9 billion in 2016.

Filipino-led investments amounted P805.7 billion last year, 72.5-percent higher than 2016’s P466.9 billion.