The Philippine central bank said on Thursday that more foreign capital left the country in July due to the uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said foreign portfolio investments for July yielded net outflows of 453 million U.S. dollars resulting from the 1.2 billion U.S. dollars gross outflows and 719 million U.S. dollars gross inflows for the month.
"This is larger than the recorded net outflows of 235 million U.S. dollars in June," the BSP said in a statement.
The BSP said 719 million U.S. dollars registered investments for the month reflected a 29.5 percent decline compared to the 1.0 billion U.S. dollars recorded for June.
It added that about 96.5 percent of investments registered were in Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)-listed securities pertaining mainly to utilities companies, holding firms, property companies, banks and food, beverage and tobacco companies, while the remaining 3.5 percent went to investments in peso government securities.
Gross outflows for July which hit 1.2 billion U.S. dollars were lower compared to the level recorded for June which reached 1.3 billion U.S. dollars or by 6.6 percent, the BSP said.
The BSP said registered foreign portfolio investments (FPI) transactions from Jan. 1 to July 31, yielded net outflows of 3.8 billion U.S. dollars resulting from the 10.2 billion U.S. dollars gross outflows and 6.4 billion U.S. dollars gross inflows for the said period.
"This is larger compared to the 706 million U.S. dollars net outflows noted for the same period in 2019 brought about by uncertainties due, among others, to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the global economy and financial system, and other key events earlier in the year such as the geopolitical and trade tensions, and corporate governance issues involving the water concessionaires," the BSP said.
Source: Xinhua |
