Transactions on foreign investments registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, through authorized agent banks in August recorded net outflows of $86 million, lower compared to the US$103 million net outflows recorded in July, the BSP said Thursday.

This resulted from the $878 million gross outflows and $792 million gross inflows for the month.

The $792 million registered investments in August reflected an increase of 16.3 percent (or by $111 million) compared to the $681 million in July.

Majority of investments (or 76 percent) registered were in PSE-listed securities [investments mainly in: (a) banks; (b) holding firms; (c) property; (d) food, beverage and tobacco; and (e) electricity, energy, power & water], while the remaining went to investments in Peso government securities (24 percent) and other instruments (less than 1 percent).

Investments for the month mostly came from the United Kingdom; United States; Hong Kong; Malaysia; and Luxembourg with combined share to total at 82.6 percent.

The $878 million gross outflows for the month were larger by 12 percent (or by $94 million) than the $784 million recorded in July. The US received 72.5 percent of total outward remittances.

Year-on-year, registered investments in August decreased by 1.9 percent (or by $15 million) from the $807 million recorded in August 2021, while gross outflows were larger by 10.4 percent (or by $82 million) than the outflows recorded for the same period last year ($795 million).

The $86 million net outflows in August were a reversal from the $12 million net inflows recorded in August 2021.

Year-to-date transactions (January 1 to August 31 2022) for foreign investments registered with the BSP, through authorized agent banks yielded net inflows of $539 million, a turnaround from the $434 million net outflows noted for the same period last year (January 1 to August 31 2021). BSP