MANILA, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Foreign direct investments (FDI) net inflows into the Philippines reached 961 million U.S. dollars in April 2019 as all FDI components registered positive balances during the month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Wednesday.

The BSP said this level was 11.8 percent lower than the 1.1 billion U.S. dollars net inflows recorded in the same period last year.

During the month, the BSP said net inflows of net equity capital declined by 85.5 percent to 39 million U.S. dollars from 272 million U.S. dollars in April 2018. Equity capital placements emanated largely from Thailand, the United States, and Singapore.

These were channeled mainly to the financial and insurance; real estate; manufacturing; electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply; and construction industries, the BSP added.

Meanwhile, the BSP said non-residents' investments in debt instruments - consisting mainly of loans extended by parent companies abroad to their local affiliates - increased by 12.6 percent to 830 million U.S. dollars from 737 million U.S. dollars posted last year.

Likewise, it said the reinvestment of earnings reached 92 million U.S. dollars, 14 percent higher than the 80 million U.S. dollars recorded in April 2018.

On a year-to-date basis, the BSP said FDI yielded 2.9 billion U.S. dollars net inflows from January to April 2019, a 14-percent decrease from the 3.4 billion U.S. dollars net inflows recorded a year ago.

Equity capital placements during the first four months of the year were sourced mostly from Japan, the United States, China, Singapore, and South Korea, the BSP said.

These were invested mainly in the financial and insurance, real estate, manufacturing, transportation and storage, and administrative and support service industries.