The total foreign investments (FI) approved in the first quarter posted a double-digit annual decline of 36.2 percent, with the recorded figure for the said period at a two-year low, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The PSA yesterday said that the FIs in the first quarter amounted to P29.4 billion, 36.2 percent lower compared with the 46 billion in the same period in 2019.
The investment pledges for the first quarter of 2020 are the lowest recorded for a quarter, since the first quarter of 2018, then at P14.2 billion.
The pledges came from the six investment promotion agencies, namely the Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.
No investment approvals were reported from BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for the reference quarter, the PSA said.
The FI commitments for the first quarter of 2020 were mainly driven by investments from the United Kingdom (UK) which accounted for 20.9 percent, followed by the United States of America (USA) and China.
The UK committed P6.1 billion. Meanwhile, USA and China pledged P5.7 billion and P4.9 billion or 19.6 percent and 16.7 percent of the total approved FI, respectively.
Approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the first quarter of 2020 were expected to generate 34,814 jobs, lower by 17.6 percent compared with the previous year’s projected employment of 42,245.
Out of these anticipated jobs, 89 percent would be absorbed by projects with foreign interest.