Hot money reaches $28.4B in 2013

MANILA, Philippines – Sustained high economic growth, investment upgrades, and healthy macroeconomic fundamentals attracted a large amount of portfolio investments in 2013, bringing annual inflows to US$28.4 billion, the highest in 14 years.

Foreign porfolio investments are also called hot money given the ease with which they enter and leave the country.

In a statement on Thursday, January 16, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the full year registered foreign portfolio investments were 53.7% higher than the $18.5 billion recorded in 2012.

In December, more than $1.2 billion funds went to local capital markets, 59.1% lower than November’s $3 billion. This was attributed to the announcement by the US Federal Reserve that it was winding down its stimulus program.

Hot money went mostly to Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities (74.7%) and peso-denominated government securities (23%).

The main recipients of the PSE-bound funds were the following:

Holding firms
Banks
Properties
Food and beverage
Tobacco
Telecommunication firms
The main sources of portfolio funds with a combined share of 83.5% were:

United Kingdom
United States
Singapore
Hong Kong
Luxembourg
– Rappler.com