4-mo investment pledges up despite drop in March, April

Investment pledges registered under the country’s lead investment promotion agency (IPA) dropped by nearly 50 percent in April alone, which was blamed by the trade chief on “timing.”

Pledges registered under the Board of Investments (BOI) fell to P43.603 billion in April, marking a 48.79-percent drop from P85.14 billion in the same month last year, based on data shown to the Inquirer.

This is the second month in a row that pledges have dropped. The first was in March when investment pledges fell by 50.91 percent to P20.507 billion from P41.774 billion in March last year.

This also reflects the continuous drop in investment commitments registered by another IPA, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), which it blamed on the second package of the comprehensive tax reform program.

The second package, which has been filed in Congress, would lower the corporate income tax while rationalizing the incentives provided by IPAs.

Asked for comment, Trade Secretary and BOI Chair Ramon Lopez said that this could be a matter of timing, noting that investors would eventually notice the country’s strengths.

“Perhaps [it’s] more of timing, (considering) that the macrofundamentals remain strong and that the Philippines was upgraded to positive [by debt watcher S&P Global Ratings] and voted as best country to invest in [according to rankings of US News],” he said in a text message.

Pledges registered in January and February this year lifted the four-month performance despite the decline in the succeeding months.

From January to April, pledges reached P195.7 billion, a 28-percent increase from P153.1 billion a year ago, according to a BOI statement on Thursday.

“The additional projects registered in April maybe moderate but over the coming months, we express confidence that more investors will continue to come in and make up for the shortfall,” he said.