BSP-registered foreign portfolio investments yield net inflows in January 2022

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)-registered foreign portfolio investments (FPIs)¹ in January 2022 yielded net inflows of US$15 million resulting from the US$731 million gross inflows and US$717 million gross outflows for the month.

This is a reversal from the net outflows of US$4 million recorded in December 2021.

The US$731 million registered investments for January 2022 reflected a decrease of 45.1 percent (or by US$600 million) compared to the US$1.3 billion recorded in December 2021.

Majority of investments (or 68.0 percent) registered were in Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) – listed securities (investments mainly in holding firms; property; banks; food, beverage and tobacco; and telecommunications) while the remaining 32.0 percent went to investments in Peso government securities (Peso GS).

The top five (5) investor countries for the month were the United Kingdom, United States (US), Luxembourg, Switzerland and Malaysia with combined share to total at 82.0 percent.

The US$717 million gross outflows for the month were lower by 46.4 percent (or by US$619 million) than the US$1.3 billion recorded in December 2021.  The US received 75.1 percent of total outflows.

Year-on-year, registered investments declined by 23.1 percent (or by US$220 million) from the US$952 million recorded in January 2021.

Similarly, gross outflows were lower by 16.0 percent (or by US$137 million) than the outflows recorded a year ago (US$854 million). It may be noted that the US$15 million net inflows were lower by 85.1 percent (or by US$83 million) compared to the US$98 million net inflows recorded for the same period a year ago.

Registration of inward foreign investments with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is optional under the rules on foreign exchange transactions. It is required only if the investor or its representative will purchase foreign exchange from authorized agent banks and/or their subsidiary/affiliate foreign exchange corporations for repatriation of capital and remittance of earnings that accrue on the registered investment.

Without such registration, the foreign investor can still repatriate capital and remit earnings on its investment but the foreign exchange will have to be sourced outside the banking system.

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¹ Refer to inward foreign investments in PSE-listed securities (PSE); Peso-denominated government securities (GS); Peso time deposits with banks with minimum tenor of 90 days; other Peso debt instruments; unit investment trust funds; and other portfolio investments such as Exchange Traded Funds and Philippine Depositary Receipts