‘Hot money’ tally positive for 2018
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2019 16:20:10 +0000
Net foreign portfolio investments dropped in December but the full-year tally for 2018 reverted to positive and hit a five-year high, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Thursday.
December’s $278.11-million net “hot money” inflow, while lower than the $832.07 million posted in November and the year-earlier $456.93 million, resulted in a full-year result of $1.204 billion, an about-face from 2017’s $195.40-million net outflow.
The 2018 tally was also better than the BSP’s forecast of a $100-million net outflow and was the largest net inflow since 2013’s $4.225 billion.
In a statement, the Bangko Sentral attributed the net inflow to “a large investment in a holding company registered in 2018.”
Inflows totaled $16.033 billion in 2018, 0.2 percent lower than the $16.072 billion seen in the previous year.
“Outflows for the year amounting to $14.8 billion reflected an 8.8-percent decline compared to $16.3 billion in 2017,” the central bank noted.
Capital repatriation comprised 96.8 percent of the outflows, with the remainder pertaining to earnings.
The bulk or 71.4 percent of the inflows, meanwhile, was invested in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities while the balance went to peso government securities and debt instruments.
The United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, the Netherlands and Hong Kong were the top five investor countries for year with a combined 72.8 percent of the total.
The US remained the main destination of outflows, accounting for 78.8 percent of the total.
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