BSP-registered foreign portfolio investments (FPIs) in January yielded net inflows of $15 million resulting from the $731 million gross inflows and $717 billion gross outflows for the month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Thursday.

This is a reversal from the net outflows of $4 million recorded in December 2021.

The $731 million registered investments for January reflected a decrease of 45.1 percent (or by $600 million) compared to the $1.3 billion recorded in December 2021.

Majority of investments (or 68 percent) registered were in Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) - listed securities (investments mainly in holding firms; property; banks; food, beverage and tobacco; and telecommunications).

The remaining 30 percent went to investments in peso government securities (Peso GS). The top five investor countries for the month were the United Kingdom, United States (US), Luxembourg, Switzerland and Malaysia with combined share to total at 82 percent.

The $717 million gross outflows for the month were lower by 46.4 percent (or by $619 million) than the $1.3 billion recorded in December 2021. The US received 75.1 percent of total outflows.

Year-on-year, registered investments declined by 23.1 percent (or by $220 million) from the $952 million recorded in January.

Similarly, gross outflows were lower by 16 percent (or by $137 million) than the outflows recorded a year ago ($854 million).

It may be noted that the $15 million net inflows were lower by 85.1 percent (or by $83 million) compared to the $98 million net inflows recorded for the same period a year ago. BSP