Philippine investment down

Philippine investment down

MANILA (AFP): Foreign investment in the Philippines fell 14.12 percent on the previous year to US$1.459 billion in the three months to March, but the country appears to have escaped the worst of the fallout from Mexican crisis, the Central Bank said yesterday.

It said the preliminary figures were a 16.16 percent improvement from the last quarter of 1994, the same time the Mexican currency crisis was shaking investor confidence in so- called emerging markets in Asia and elsewhere.

Portfolio investments increased 8.37 percent on an annual basis to $829 million in the first quarter, but direct equity investments fell 32.55 percent to $630 million, Central Bank figures show.

Central Bank chief economist Diwa Guinigundo told reporters Manila had caught the "tail end" of the massive foreign capital inflow into Asia, and "this is why we were the last to fall and the first to recover among emerging nations."