Foreign portfolio investments yield net inflows in April 2022

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)-registered foreign portfolio investments (FPIs)^[i] in April 2022 yielded net inflows of US$1.4 billion resulting from the US$2.2 billion gross inflows and US$823 million gross outflows for the month.

This is a reversal from the net outflows of US$305 million recorded in March 2022.

The US$2.2 billion registered investments for April 2022 reflected an increase of 70.7 percent (or by US$903 million) compared to the US$1.3 billion recorded in March 2022.

Majority of investments (or 91.5 percent) registered were in PSE-listed securities [investments mainly in:

(a) electricity, energy, power & water;

(b) banks;

(c) holding firms;

(d) property; and

(e) transportation services], while the remaining 8.5 percent went to investments in Peso government securities.

The top five (5) investor countries for the month were:

(a) Singapore;

(b) the United Kingdom;

(c) the United States (US);

(d) Hong Kong; and

(e) Luxembourg with combined share to total at 94.3 percent.

The US$823 million gross outflows for the month were lower by 48.0 percent (or by US$759 million) than the US$1.6 billion recorded in March 2022. The US received 61.4 percent of total remittances.

Year-on-year, registered investments in April 2022 increased by 234.9 percent (or by US$1.5 billion) from the US$651 million recorded in April 2021, while gross outflows were smaller by 19.7 percent (or by US$202 million) than the outflows recorded for the same period last year (US$1.0 billion).

The US$1.4 billion net inflows in April 2022 is a reversal from the US$374 million net outflows recorded in April 2021.

Year-to-date transactions (1 January to 30 April 2022) for BSP-registered FPIs yielded net inflows of US$1.3 billion, a turnaround from the US$857 million net outflows noted for the same period last year (1 January to 30 April 2021).

Registration of inward foreign investments with the BSP 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.

^[i] 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