Signal Malaysia and the Philippines saw FDI shares fall while their absolute FDI rose

Summary

The group-wide rise in the FDI share came from four of the six countries, with Malaysia and the Philippines as exceptions. In those two, the FDI share of inflows fell between 2017 to 2020 and 2021 to 2024. This happened even though the absolute value of their FDI grew. The reason was a steep increase in portfolio and bank-related and other inflows, which outpaced direct investment. The jump was sharpest in Malaysia, where the combined total of those two categories rose more than fivefold.