Short-term foreign investments that flowed inward over four months reverted in March and flowed out on net basis during the period, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Thursday.
Foreign portfolio investments (FPIs), also known as hot or speculative money, recorded a net outflow of $21 million in March as gross inflows of $2.08 billion during the month was swept away by gross outflows totaling $2.1 billion.
This marked the first time since October last year that the central bank reported a net outflow when $179.9 million exited the country.
Outflows of $21 million in March represented a reversal from net inflows in February this year totaling $1.19 billion. Compared to the same month last year, however, the outflows in March proved smaller than outflows totaling $92.86 million last year.
The BSP blamed profit taking by market participants for the outbound direction of foreign funds during the period.
About 81.8 percent of the registered investment during the month were in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities—mainly in holding firms, property companies, banks, food, beverage and tobacco companies and telecommunication forms.
The other 17.7 percent, meanwhile went to peso government securities and the remaining 0.5 percent to unit investment trust funds.
Also, during the period, the US continued to be the main destination of outflows during the period, receiving 78.5 percent of the total this year.
The United Kingdom, Singapore, Luxembourg and Hong Kong, along with the US, were the top 5 investor countries for the month with a combined share to total inflows of 82.1 percent.
Bianca Cuaresma
1 comment
Hey is PSE being a money laundering scam shit with this happening?