By Eileen Mencias
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has downgraded its foreign investment target by $2.5 billion despite what the Marcos government dubbed as hugely successful state visits.
BSP now expects foreign direct investments to reach $8.5 billion from the $10.5 billion it projected in the third quarter.
From January to September this year, FDIs amounted to $6.7 billion.
The BSP also lowered its projection on foreign portfolio investments to $3.5 billion from $4.5 billion due to the higher balance of payments deficit projection.
The central bank revised its BOF deficit projection to $11.2 billion from the ficit of $11.2 billion. With the BOP deficit, the BSP expects to shed almost $1 billion from only $8.4 billion in the third quarter.
Gross international reserves are now forecast to end at $93 billion from $93.96 billion end-November.