Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said that for the whole year 2022, foreign investments registered with the BSP aggregated $12.3 billion, reflecting a 9.4 percent decrease compared to the $13.6 billion level in 2021.
These investments were predominantly investment in PSE-listed securities mostly in electricity, energy, power & water; property; holding firms; banks; and food, beverage & tobacco, while the balance was invested in Peso GS and other investments.
The UK, Singapore, US, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong were the top five investor countries during the year, with combined share to total at 81.8 percent.
Also called hot money due to its quick and easy movement, transactions yielded net inflows of $887 million, a turnaround from the $574 million net outflows noted for the same period last year.
Recorded outflows of $11.5 billion were lower compared to previous year’s $14.2 billion.
Majority of these outflows represented capital repatriation while the remaining 5.0 percent pertained to remittance of earnings. The US continued to be the main destination of outflows with 72.9 percent of total.
On a per investment instrument level, transactions in PSE-listed shares resulted in net inflows of $179 million which is a reversal from the $956 million net outflows last year, while those for Peso GS recorded net inflows of $694 million, higher compared to last year’s $398 million net inflows.
Transactions on foreign investments registered with the BSP in December 2022 recorded net inflows of $93 million, lower compared to the $489 million net inflows recorded in November 2022.
This resulted from the $1.09 billion gross inflows and $999 million gross outflows for the month.
The $1.09 billion registered investments in December 2022 reflected an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the $1.05 billion registered in November 2022.
Majority of investments registered were in PSE-listed securities (investments mainly in holding firms, telecommunications, banks, property and food, beverage & tobacco, while the remaining went to investments in Peso government securities and other instruments.
Investments for the month mostly came from the UK, Singapore, US Luxembourg and Netherlands with combined share to total at 80.5 percent.
The $999 million gross outflows for the month were larger by 76.6 percent than the $566 million recorded in November 2022. The US received 72.0 percent of total outward remittances.
Year-on-year, registered investments in December 2022 decreased by 18.0 percent from the $1.3 billion recorded in December 2021, while gross outflows were also lower by 25.2 percent than the outflows recorded for the same period last year. The $93 million net inflows in December 2022 is a reversal of the $4 million net outflows recorded in December 2021.
