Philippine FDI net inflows climb by 32 pct in August

The Philippine foreign direct investments'(FDI) net inflows rose by 32 percent year-on-year to 711 million U.S. dollars in August, the local central bank said Thursday.

FDI net inflows in August last year amounted to 539 million dollars.

The increase in FDI inflows was on account of 44.2 percent surge in investments in debt instruments or intercompany borrowings to 636 million dollars from 441 million dollars in August 2015.

"The increase in investments in debt instruments more than compensated for the decline in net equity capital investments to 8 million dollars from 37 million dollars last year," the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

In gross terms, placements of equity capital slightly grew by 2 percent to 49 million dollars.

The bulk of gross equity capital placements were sourced mainly from the United States, Singapore, the Netherlands, Japan, and China's Hong Kong.

Equity capital placements were channeled mainly to real estate, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply, arts, entertainment and recreation activities.

Reinvestment of earnings grew by 9.9 percent to 67 million dollars during the month.

For the first eight months to August, net FDI inflows recorded a year-on-year increase of 71.1 percent to reach 5.4 billion dollars.

"The sustained FDI inflows were buoyed by investors' confidence in the economy on the back of the country's sound macroeconomic fundamentals," the central bank said. Endit