MANILA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Foreign direct investments (FDI) into the Philippines for the first eight months of 2018 increased 31 percent to 7.4 billion U.S. dollars from 5.7 billion dollars net inflows recorded in 2017, a government data showed on Monday.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippine central bank said in a statement that FDI net inflows "remained strong amid continued favorable investor sentiment on the Philippine economy on the back of the country's strong macroeconomic fundamentals and growth prospects."
The BSP said FDI continued to post net inflows in August 2018, amounting to 752 million dollars, albeit 41.2 percent lower than the 1.3 billion dollars net inflows recorded in the same period last year.
"Even as all FDI components registered positive balances, inflows were lower than the levels posted in August 2017," the BSP said.
It added that the bulk of the FDI net inflows for August was in the form of investments in debt instruments, consisting mainly of inter-company borrowings or lending between foreign direct investors and their subsidiaries or affiliates in the Philippines, which reached 534 million U.S. dollars.
