Foreign portfolio investment transactions yielded net inflows in November: BSP

December 15, 2018

Registered investments for November amounted to $2 billion, more than twice the $953 million figure last month and an 80.8 percent growth compared to the $1.1 billion level in the same month a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.

About 66.8 percent of investments registered during the month were in PSE-listed securities (pertaining mainly to food, beverage and tobacco companies holding firms, property companies, banks, and utilities companies), while the 33.2 percent balance went to peso government securities .

Transactions in peso government securities and PSE-listed securities yielded net inflows of $510 million and $322 million, respectively.

The United Kingdom, Singapore, the United States, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands were the top five investor countries for November, with combined share to total at 83.5 percent.

Outflows for the month ($1.2 billion) were higher by 18.4 percent compared to figures recorded for October and November 2017 (both at levels of about $1 billion). The US continued to be the main destination of outflows, receiving 84.8 percent of total remittances.

Overall, transactions for the month resulted in net inflows of $832 million. This reflects a turnaround from the $68 million net outflows recorded last month and an improvement from the $108 million for November 2017.

This may be attributed to positive investors’ reaction to the following: (i) decreasing global oil prices; (ii) BSP’s decision to raise its policy rate; and (iii) progress on the rice tariffication bill, all of which are expected to temper inflation as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the country, which was expected to further deepen ties with China in terms of diplomacy and business development.

Year-to-date transactions (Jan 1 to  November 30)  yielded net inflows of $926 million compared to the $635 million net outflows for the same period last year (January 2 to  December 1 2017),  which is attributed to a large investment in a holding company registered this year. DMS