Hot money falls in September amid worries over euro zone debt

HOT money flows fell in September amid a flight to safe havens on investor fears that Europe would not avoid a debt crisis that could derail global economic recovery.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that foreign portfolio investment transactions yielded net inflows of $150 million, plummeting 69.7 percent from the $494 million in the same month last year. The BSP attributed the decline to bearish sentiment in financial markets amid the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Investments in securities listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange and in peso government securities dropped to $1.3 billion from $1.4 billion last year. Outflows rose to $1.2 billion from $929 million last year.

Despite last month’s drop, hot money transactions resulted in net inflows of $3.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 125.9 percent from the $1.4 billion in the same period last year.
Registered investments in PSE-listed securities reached $6.7 billion, up from $5.3 billion last year.
Investments in peso government securities hit $6.1 billion, more than four times the $1.4 billion in 2010.

The BSP said $429 million were in peso time deposits, unit investment trust funds, and money market instruments. Outflows during the first nine months increased by 73.6 percent from $5.8 billion to $10 billion, with 91.6 percent representing withdrawals from interim peso deposits.

Major beneficiaries of hot money inflows were holdings firms, property companies, banks, telecommunication firms and utility companies.

According to the central bank, the top investor countries were Singapore, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the United States and Hong Kong.

Registration of inward foreign investments with the BSP is voluntary. It entitles the investor or their representative to buy foreign exchange from authorized agent banks and/or their subsidiary/affiliate foreign exchange corporations for repatriation of capital and remittance of dividends/ profits/earnings that accrue on the registered investment. –Lailany P. Gomez, Reporter, Manila Times