Foreign portfolio investments or hot money yielded net inflows of $292 million in January, up from the $93-million net inflows recorded in December, amid the improving global economic outlook, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in a statement Thursday.
Data showed this resulted from the $1.0-billion gross inflows and $712-million gross outflows for the month. The January net inflows were also bigger than the $14.60-million net inflows a year ago.
Majority of investments (or 62.8 percent) registered were in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities, while the balance went to investments in peso government securities (37.2 percent) and in other instruments (less than 1.0 percent).
Investments for the month mostly came from the United Kingdom, United States, Singapore, Luxembourg and Hong Kong, with combined share to total at 83.8 percent.
Portfolio investments are also called “hot money” because of the ease they are invested in and taken out of domestic financial markets.
Foreign portfolio investments posted net inflows of $887 million in 2022, a reversal of the $574-million net outflows in 2021, as fund managers remained confident in the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals despite uncertainties on the external front.
The 2022 net inflows, however, missed the $3.5-billion net inflows projection of the BSP for the year.