By Lee C. Chipongian The country’s foreign direct investments’ (FDI) net inflows reached $9.1 billion in the first 11 months of 2018, down 3.2 percent year-on-year from $9.4 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said yesterday. The BSP said the decline in net inflows was because of the 28.3 percent drop in net investments of equity capital of $2.1 billion as of end-November. “Equity capital placements during the period - mostly from Singapore, Hong Kong, the US, Japan, and China -- were invested mainly in manufacturing, financial and insurance, real estate, arts, entertainment and recreation, and electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply activities,” said the BSP. The 11-month net investments in debt instruments, in the meantime, grew by 9.3 percent to $6.2 billion from $5.7 billion in the same perod in 2017. Reinvestment of earnings also rose by 2.8 percent year-on-year to $738 million. For the month of November only, FDI posted net inflows of $531 million, 45.9 percent down compared to same time in 2017 of $982 million. The BSP said the decline was “due largely to the drop in net investments in debt instruments (consisting mainly of intercompany borrowings/lending between foreign direct investors and their subsidiaries/affiliates in the Philippines), which amounted to $333 million from $724 million in the same month in 2017,” said the BSP. Net investments of equity capital fell 31.9 percent year-on-year to $137 million from $202 million. The central bank said equity capital placements came from investors in Taiwan, the US, Thailand, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. These funds were invested in financial and insurance, electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply, as well as manufacturing and real estate activities. Reinvestment of earnings was up 9.5 percent to $61 million in November.