Foreign portfolio investment transactions yield net outflows for 2019

January 16, 2020

Transactions on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)-registered foreign portfolio investments for 2019 yielded net outflows of $1.9 billion as a result of the $18.5 billion outflows and $16.6 billion inflows for the year, the central bank said Thursday

Net outflows of $1.9 billion may be broken down to net outflows in the following instruments: Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)-listed shares (S$1.7 billion); Peso government securities ($228 million); and other portfolio instruments ($22 million).

Recorded outflows ($18.5 billion) from BSP-registered foreign portfolio instruments for 2019 were higher compared to $14.8 billion the previous year (by 24.8 percent or $3.7 billion).

Majority (or 97.1 percent) of these outflows represented capital repatriation while the remaining 2.9 percent pertained to remittance of earnings.

The United States received 75.1 percent of total outflows.

Similarly, BSP-registered foreign portfolio investments for 2019 aggregating $16.6 billion, reflected a 3.5 percent increase (or by $569 million) compared to the $16.0 billion level in 2018.

These foreign foreign portfolio investments were predominantly securities listed in the PSE (77.7 percent, mainly investment in holding firms, property companies, banks, food, beverage, and tobacco firms, and retail companies), with the balance invested in peso government securities (22.3 percent) and other portfolio instruments (less than 1 percent).

The United Kingdom, the US, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong were the top five investor countries during the year, with combined share to total of 74.3 percent. DMS