By Joann Santiago
MANILA, July 16 (PNA) — The Philippines is not excused from economic setbacks such as growth slowdown in the first quarter of 2015 but it remains attractive to investors as shown by the volume of foreign portfolio investments.
Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Thursday showed that total inflows of hot money, dubbed due to the speed it comes in and out of the country, reached US$ 12.3 billion as of the week ending July 3, 2015.
This is higher than the US$ 11.56 billion outflows during the same period resulting to a US$ 737.58 net inflow.
The reported net inflow to date is a reversal from the US$ 1.3 billion net outflow in the week ending July 4, 2014.
However, the country posted a US$ 521.99 million net outflow last June alone as against the US$ 43.95 net inflow same period last year.
It is, on the other hand, lower than month-ago’s US$ 569.27 million net outflow.
Total inflows last month reached US$ 1.69 million and bulk or 80.5 percent of these came from the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong.
Total outflows during the same month reached US$ 2.2 million.
The central bank attributed the outflows to the weaker-than-expected domestic output in the first quarter of the year, drop in first quarter corporate earnings, profit-taking, concerns on the expected normalization of US interest rates and the Greek debt crisis. (PNA)