REGISTERED foreign portfolio investments, or “hot money,” posted a net outflow of $354 million in April, significantly higher than $31 million in the same period last year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.
The April figure was a reversal from $482 million net inflow in March this year.
Gross inflows for the month reached $1.3 billion, lower than $1.934 billion a year ago, while total outflows stood at $1.62 billion, also down from $1.96 billion on year.
“Outflows rose by $421 million or 34.9 percent from last month’s $1.2 billion due to profit taking, coupled with concerns on the oil supply surplus, slump in Chinese equities, and the coming elections,” Bangko Sentral said.
About 80.3 percent of investments registered during the month were in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities, while 19.7 percent were in peso government securities.