MANILA – Foreign portfolio investments registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) through authorized banks recorded net inflows of USD533.95 million in August.
Data released by the BSP late Monday showed that the net inflows resulted from the USD1.37 billion gross inflows and the gross outflows of USD836.78 million for the month.
Foreign portfolio investments are also called hot money due to the speed with which they come in and out of the economy.
The BSP said the USD1.37 billion registered investments for the month dropped 43.7 percent from the USD2.4 billion in July.
In August, 51.2 percent of registered investments were in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities.
Most of these were invested in banks, transportation services, holding firms, property, and food, beverage and tobacco.
The remaining 48.8 percent were in peso government securities.
The central bank said investments for the month mostly came from Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and Malaysia.
The USD212.54 million gross outflows meanwhile, declined by 20.3 percent from the USD1.04 billion outflows in July.
“The US remains to be the top destination of outflows, receiving USD436.33 million (or 52.1 percent) of total outward remittances,” the BSP said.
From January to August, foreign investments registered with the BSP, through authorized agent banks, yielded net inflows of USD1.9 billion, up by 542.9 percent from the USD310.7 million inflows in the same period last year. (PNA)