MANILA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Foreign portfolio investments, or hot money, continued its pullout from the Philippines with more than 700 million U.S. dollars leaving the country in June, said the Philippine Star on Sunday.
The newspaper quoted the country's central bank, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), as saying that capital repatriations totaled 735.2 million dollars in June, mainly from withdrawals of investments in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed shares, government securities and peso bank deposits.
Meanwhile, the inflow of hot money in June totaled 589.6 million dollars, most of them used to purchase stocks of companies listed at the Philippine stock exchange and investments in peso-denominated government securities, said the report.
With a 145.6 million dollar deficit in June, the flow of hot money in and out of the Philippines further turned negative in the first six months of the year, compared with a positive record in the same period last year, said the report.
The report quoted the BSP as saying gross foreign portfolio investments from January to June registered a net outflow of 417.4million dollars, compared with a net inflow of 2.6 billion dollars a year ago.
"This reflected continuing risk aversion due to the expected global economic slowdown and credit crisis as well as reduced corporate earnings resulting from surging oil and other commodity prices," the report quoted BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco as saying.
