Hanoi (VNA) - Speculative fundscontinued to flee the Philippines in September amid a spate of geopoliticalissues which affected the flow of hot money globally.
Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas(BSP) – the central bank – showed that the country’s foreign portfolio investmentsyielded a net outflow of 231.71 million USD in September, pushing the netoutflow for the nine-month period to 1.33 billion USD, nearly 17 times higherthan the 74.67 million USD net outflow recorded in the same period last year.
According to the BSP, some of the geopoliticalissues affecting the flow of hot money into the country include the ongoingtrade tensions between the US and China, attacks on oil facilities in SaudiArabia that triggered the largest jump in oil prices in decades, furtherinterest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve and the impeachment inquiryagainst US President Donald Trump.
The BSP’s data indicated that hot money inflowsjumped by 75 percent to 1.3 billion USD in September from 743.31 million USD inthe same month last year.
Of the total inflows, the BSP said more than80 percent of investments went to securities being traded at thePhilippine Stock Exchange (PSE) especially property developers, holding firms,banks, food, beverage and tobacco companies and transportation providers.
According to the BSP, the top five investorcountries during the review period were the UK, the US, Singapore, Malaysia andLuxembourg with a combined share of 72.3 percent.
On the other hand, outflows went up by 29.5percent to 1.53 billion USD. Of the total withdrawals, about 75 percent wentback to the US.
For the nine-month period, hot money inflowswent up by 13.8 percent to 13.25 billion USD compared to 11.64 billion USD inthe same period last year.
On the other hand, withdrawals jumped by 26.1percent to 14.85 billion USD from 11.56 billion USD./.
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Illustrative image (Source: https://www.philstar.com)
