Investment pledges down 54.1% in Q1, PH’s lowest record in 13 years
Foreign investment pledges to the Philippines in Q1 plunged by 54.1% year-on-year to P8.981 billion as the COVID-19 Omicron variant halted the economy in January.
According to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), this is the lowest investment haul in the country since 2009’s P3.959 billion.
This latest figure is a reversal from the 265.8% y-o-y growth in Q4 2021 but lower than the 32.9% fall in the first quarter last year.
Rizal Commercial Banking, Corp. Chief Economist Michael Ricafort attributed this contraction to tighter restrictions at the beginning of 2022 as the COVID cases surged in the capital region and other areas across the country.
He added that the large FDI recorded in 2021 “could have partly frontloaded some of the foreign investments and partly disrupted by the surge in Omicron variant cases worldwide during the early part of the quarter,”
At the end of 2021, the total net FDI inflows jumped by 54.2% to a record $10.518 billion. This exceeded the central bank’s $8-billion full-year projection.
Ricafore stated that the passing of economic reforms — such as the Public Service Act, Foreign Investment Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act — would help attract more foreign investments to the country for the rest of the year.
