MANILA -- The Philippines recorded $110 million in net inflows of foreign direct investments in December last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Monday.

This was 85.2 percent lower than the $743 million FDI net inflows recorded in December 2023. According to the BSP, investments declined due to increased debt repayments by resident corporations to their nonresident direct investors, even as nonresidents net equity capital rose.

"Equity capital placements in December 2024 came primarily from Singapore, Japan, the United States, and South Korea. These investments were mostly directed towards the information and communication; manufacturing; financial and insurance; construction; and real estate industries," the central bank said.

FDI net inflows for the whole of 2024 meanwhile remained broadly stable at $8.9 billion, the BSP added.  

The Philippines has been a laggard among its peers in Southeast Asia in terms of attracting foreign direct investments. The government has been hoping that a raft of reforms aimed at further opening the economy to foreign investors would help the country catch up to its neighbors.

Larger ASEAN economies such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia last year secured billions of dollars of investments from some of the largest tech companies in the world seeking to tap the region's manufacturing potential, as well as set up data centers for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. 

Google to invest $2 billion in Malaysia: government

Oracle to invest $6.5 billion in Malaysian cloud services region

Meta says to produce virtual reality headsets in Vietnam

Google to invest $1 billion in Thailand