Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. announced today that transactions in foreign portfolio investments in April surged to $333 million (Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities—$248 million; peso government securities—$96 million; and money market instruments—negative $11 million), more than twice the $158-million net inflows in March.

However, on a year-on-year basis, the net inflow was down by 50 percent from the $674 million recorded in 2011.
Registered investments for the month rose to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion in March due to the initial public offering of GT Capital Holdings, Inc.; however, the figure was 13.3 percent lower compared with the $1.7 billion recorded last year.

The top five investor countries consisted of the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong. The United States continued to be the main beneficiary of outflows from these investments.

Registration of inward foreign investments with the BSP is voluntary. It entitles the investor or his/her representative to buy foreign exchange from authorized agent banks and/or their subsidiary/affiliate foreign exchange corporations for repatriation of capital and remittance of dividends/profits/earnings that accrue on the registered investment.