PH Starts off 2017 with $301M Hot money Net Inflow
After a dismal end last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that Foreign portfolio investments also known as “hot money” were off to a good start, January of 2017.
Initial data released by BSP shows that overall Foreign portfolio transactions net inflow are at a total hit of $301 million, compared to the bleak net outflow in January 2016 with $130 million, and December 2016’s outflow of $315 million.
Together with the positive reactions of investors with the 6.6% GDP growth, the registered investments for January is at $1.1 million, reflecting an 8.7% increase from the figures recorded in December 2016. According to the BSP, this may have attributed to the optimism about the new year.
On the other hand, outflows for the month was down to 38.8%, a decline of up to $846 million from a staggering $1.4 billion outflow of December 2016. The year- on- year outflows also declined to 11% from the massive $950 million.
The 95.4% registered investments in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)- listed in securities going mainly to banks, food, beverage, holding firms, property companies, tobacco firms and utility companies. Transactions from these gave off net inflow of $360 million.
The United Kingdom, United States, Singapore, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong were the top 5 investor countries for the month, with combined share to total of 79.6%. The BSP also noted that the US continued to be the main destination of outflows, receiving 89.3% of total remittances.
