MANILA, Philippines - The central bank or Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said that net foreign direct investment (FDI) for February more than doubled from the previous month to $209 million.

In January, the FDI totaled $101 million.

The central bank said in a statement on Wednesday that inflows in February comprised mainly of repaid intercompany trade credits by Philippine firms.
 
The equity capital registered a net inflow of $25 million for the month, up from the year-ago inflow of $11 million. 

The central bank had earlier projected net FDI to reach $1.8 billion for 2010, slightly lower than net inflow of $1.95 billion for all of 2009. It has not announced any changes to its FDI forecast for the year.

The net foreign direct investment and remittances from Filipinos working overseas help keep the country's balance of payments (BOP) in surplus.
  
The central bank last month raised its 2010 BOP surplus estimate to $3.7 billion from $3.2 billion previously, and sees remittances growing 8% this year, higher than an initial 6% growth forecast.

The Philippines' BOP was in surplus of nearly $5.3 billion in 2009, the biggest in 2 years.