BSP NOTES OUTFLOWS OF $1 BILLION IN MAY

Foreign portfolio investments in the country for the month of May registered net outflows of $1 billion, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas , citing  $1.5 billion gross outflows and US$486 million gross inflows for the month.

This is larger than the recorded net outflows in the investments into listed stocks on the Philippine Stock Exchange, purchases of unit investment trust funds , bond securities and even Treasury bills with a tenor of 90 days, which amounted to $660 million in April.

The $486 million registered investments for the month reflected a 22.4 percent decline from the US$627 million figure in April 2020 and is also the lowest recorded monthly gross inflows since November 2009.

About 88.3 percent of investments registered were in PSE-listed securities (pertaining mainly to property companies, holding firms, banks, retail companies and telecommunication firms) while the remaining 11.8 percent went to investments in Peso GS. The United Kingdom, the United States (US), Singapore, Hong Kong and Luxembourg were the top five (5) investor countries for the month, with combined share to total at 88.1 percent.

Outflows for May (US$1.5 billion) were higher compared to the level recorded for April (US$1.3 billion or by 15.9 percent).  The US received 47.5 percent of total outflows.