Foreign investment approvals fell by more than three-fifths in the second-quarter this year after several areas in the country implemented large scale movement restriction to curb the spread of coronavirus disease.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that total approved foreign investments in April to June this year amounted to only P15.5 billion, lower by 69 percent compared with P49.6 billion in the same period last year.

More than half of foreign investment commitments came from the United States with 58.7 percent, followed by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands with 13.2 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

People’s Republic of China, meanwhile, committed P70 million in investments, equivalent to only 0.5 percent of the total.

The latest PSA foreign investment report is the latest sign of the country's economic deterioration amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said the sizeable decline in foreign investments was expected due to strict travel restrictions imposed by the government during the quarter for health purposes.

“They cannot come and see for themselves the areas they want to invest in,” Beltran said in a phone interview. “But with better conditions, less restricted movement, it will recover.”

But the Department of Finance’s chief economist said the lower foreign investments in the country would eventually recovery depending on the “fear factor.”

“We don’t know how immediate, it depends on the fear factor,” Beltran said when asked how immediate the recovery would be. “We are not sure about the fear that this disease has generated on investors.”

The second-quarter investment pledges came from the government’s six investment promotion agencies and are expected to generate 36,572 jobs.

Beltran, meanwhile, said the subdued economic condition also presents a big opportunity for aggressive investors.

“The more aggressive ones will usually come. The best time to invest is when there’s blood in the streets,” Beltran said, citing the late billionaire Henry Sy Sr., the father of modern Philippine retail.

The DOF official said that Sy, founder of the largest chain of shopping malls in the Philippines, put up his first supermall—SM City North EDSA—at a time when the local economy was contracting by about 7.0 percent in 1983 to 1984.

“When the recovery came, he was the first to benefit from it,” Beltran said. “They are always there. They never stopped, these investors keep on looking for places to put their money.”

In the first six-months of the year, the country’s total foreign investment approvals declined by 53 percent to P44.6 billion from P95.56 billion in the same period last year.