MANILA, July 13 -The Philippines posted a net inflow of USD79.56 million in foreign portfolio investments in June 2017, which the central bank traced to investors anticipation for the resolution of the Marawi City conflict and approval of proposed tax reforms.
Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Thursday showed that the net inflow of hot money, dubbed due to the speed it comes in and out of an economy, was higher than month-ago’s USD24.35 million net outflow.
This after total inflows reached USD2.02 billion, higher than the USD1.94 billion outflows.
Both the total inflows and outflows in the sixth month this year were higher than the previous month’s USD1.48 billion inflows and USD1.51 billion outflows.
However, the net inflows last June was lower than year-ago’s USD450.87 million net inflows.
Total inflows in June 2016 reached USD1.81 billion while outflows reached USD1.36 billion.
In the first half of the year, net hot money registered a USD461 million net outflows, a turn-around from the USD594 million net inflows in end-June 2016.
The BSP traced this to “certain domestic and international developments, such as the US air strike against Syria, global terrorist attacks, interest rate increases by the US Federal Reserve, political turmoil in the US, and the closure order for several mining companies in the country.”
Bulk, or 82 percent, of the inflows to date were placed in shares of companies listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), while 17.2 percent were invested in peso-denominated government securities (GS) and 0.8 percent were invested in peso-denominated debt securities.
Majority of these funds, at around 80.1 percent, came from the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia and Luxembourg, while most of the outflows went to the US, the BSP added. (JSV/PNA)
