Foreign portfolio investments or “hot money” posted net inflows of $962 million in July, a significant improvement from $0.28 million in June and a reversal of the $103.14-million net outflows a year ago, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed Thursday.
The BSP said in a statement the July figure was a result of the $1.6-billion gross inflows and $614-million gross outflows.
The $1.6 billion registered investments in July improved by $687 million or 77.2 percent from $889 million in June. Majority of the registered investments were in peso government securities ($996 million or 63.2 percent) while about 36.8 percent were in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities ($580 million).
Transactions in the first seven months also yielded net inflows of $158 million, smaller compared to the $675 million in the same period last year.
Registration of inward foreign investments delegated to authorized agent banks by the BSP is optional under the rules on foreign exchange transactions.