(Eagle News) – Foreign direct investments in the Philippines reached an all-time high of $10.5 billion in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The figure breached the previous high of US$10.3 billion in 2017.
Malacanang announced this on Friday, March 11, presenting a report by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
“This growth reflects foreign investors’ confidence in our economy and certainly augurs well in our efforts for a strong economic rebound as we transition to the new normal,” said Presidential Communications office undersecretary Kris Ablan.
DBM said that the 2021 level ”represents a 54.2 percent increase from the US$6.8 billion net inflows recorded in 2020.”
-Continued positive foreign investor sentiment-
“The growth in FDI reflected continued positive foreign investor sentiment on the country amid expectations of a rebound in domestic economic activity and declining COVID-19 reported cases, as well as the strengthening of the global economy,” the department said.
The Covid-19 which was declared a pandemic in March hurt the global economy especially last year when the various Covid-19 variants – the Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron variants – hit various countries resulting in millions of hospitalizations and deaths. There were also lockdowns implemented in many countries, including the Philippines.
The lockdowns were later eased with the implementation of the Alert Level system which allowed greater mobility for businesses. This was done nationwide in December last year.
The BSP noted that it was in fact in December 2021 that the massive increase in foreign direct investments happened.
“Foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows sustained its growth momentum in December 2021, increasing by 59.0 percent year-on-year to reach US$1.1 billion from the US$671 million net inflows in December 2020,” it said.
“This development brought the full-year 2021 FDI net inflows to a new record level of US$10.5 billion, breaching the previous high of US$10.3 billion in 2017,” the BSP added.
(Eagle News Service)