'Hot money' net outflow hits $179.85 M in October

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - Foreign portfolio investments, also known as "hot money," recorded a net outflow of $179.85 million in October, the local central bank said Thursday.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that hot money outflows last month were lower than the $324.42 million net outflow posted in September.

"Registered foreign portfolio investments for October declined as investors reacted to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) downgrade of its 2014 growth forecast for the global economy and the continuing unrest in Hong Kong," BSP said in a statement.

The IMF cut its forecast for this year's global output to 3.3 percent from a July projection of 3.2 percent. The Fund also lowered its 2015 global economic growth estimate to 3.8 percent from 3.6 percent.

The BSP said 71.4 percent of hot money inflows in October went into Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities, mainly holding firms, banks, property companies, telecommunication firms, and utilities. The rest of the investments were put into peso- denominated government securities.

The United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Luxembourg and Malaysia were the biggest sources of foreign portfolio investments in October. The United States continued to be the main destination of outflows.

In January to October, the Philippines saw a net hot money outflow of $1.07 billion, a reversal of the $3.59 billion net inflow seen in the same period last year.