FDI pledges sink deeper into two-year low in second quarter
Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges in the country’s economic zones further sank in the second quarter – the Philippine Statistics Authority on Friday reported that a total of P15.5 billion FDI pledges were approved from April to May, down 68.8% year-on-year from P49.6 billion recorded in the same period in 2019.
The data was the lowest recorded since the first quarter of 2018 when FDI pledges amounted only to P14.21 billion.
FDI pledges are bets placed on the country’s ecozones, whose key attractions are tax holidays and other perks. As part of its stimulus measures, the government is banking on these incentives— and a 5 per cent cut on corporate income tax rate— to lure back foreign investments potentially lost during the pandemic, as well as new ones.