MANILA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The Philippine central bank on

Monday released preliminary data on net foreign direct

investments (FDI) in September:

Sept Aug July Jun May Apr Mar

Net FDI

(in $ mln) 55 13 108 73 7 -13 14

KEY POINTS:

- Net FDI inflows were $55 million in September, down 60

percent from $138 million in the same month last year.

- Net inflows from January to September totalled $1.1

billion, up nearly 40 percent from a year earlier, driven by

higher equity capital investments.

- The bulk of the September investments came from the

United States, Australia, Netherlands, British Virgin Islands,

and Japan. They benefited the manufacturing, real estate,

wholesale and retail, mining, financial and insurance, and

transportation and storage sectors.

- The central bank expects foreign direct investments to hit

$1.5 billion this year, higher than an initial forecast of $1.2

billion.

- Net foreign direct investment, portfolio inflows and

remittances from Filipinos working and living overseas help keep

the country's balance of payments (BOP) in surplus.

- The central bank has greatly increased its forecast for

the BOP surplus this year to $6.8 billion from a previous

estimate of $2.7 billion. In the first 10 months, the BOP

surplus was $6.44 billion.

LINKS:

For details click on central bank website, http://ww.bsp.gov.ph

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

Keywords: PHILIPPINES ECONOMY/FDI

(karen.lema@thomsonreuters.com)(+632 841-8938)(Reuters Messaging: karen.lema.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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