Foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows reached 9.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, down 4.4 percent from the 10.3 billion U.S. dollars net inflows in 2017, the Philippine central bank said on Monday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that net investments of equity capital were lower at 2.3 billion U.S. dollars compared to 3.4 billion U.S. dollars recorded in 2017.

The bulk of equity capital placements in 2018 were sourced mainly from Singapore, the United States, China's Hong Kong, Japan and China, according to the BSP.

The BSP said these were channeled primarily to manufacturing; financial and insurance; real estate; electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply; and arts, entertainment and recreation industries.

The BSP said reinvestment of earnings also declined slightly by 0.4 percent to 859 million U.S. dollars in 2018 from 863 million U.S. dollars in 2017.

By contrast, the BSP said net availment of debt instruments rose by 11.3 percent to 6.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 from 6 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.