Portfolio funds, more known as “hot” money, briefly flowed inward in October but would eventually exit the country over a 10-month stretch, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Friday.

In the first ten months this year, foreign portfolio investments posted a net outflow of $1.22 billion, a reversal from inflows totaling $93.89 million in the same period a year ago.

Private sector economists traced this development to lingering external factors such as the ongoing US-China trade war and the slowdown in global economic activity.

“Net foreign portfolio investment outflows for the first 10 months (was) largely due to (the) lingering US-China trade war, Brexit-related uncertainties and the slowest economic growth in China since 1992,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. lead economist Michael Ricafort said in a text message.

ING Bank senior economist Nicholas Mapa said while a net inflow was observed in October, these weren’t enough to offset the outflows seen in the recent months.

“Portfolio flows are highly sensitive to headlines and sentiment, on moving both ways, and bouts of risk off tone driven by periodic flare-ups in the US-China trade tension would be the main cause. The peso however remains supported by other flows both current (like remittances and business process outsourcing) and financial which are not captured in this metric,” Mapa said.

At the Union Bank of the Philippines, chief economist Carlo Asuncion said further reforms are needed to allow the country to capture more foreign investments.