The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, or BSP, on Thursday reported the country’s total foreign investment transactions in 2023 resulted in a net outflow of $247 million.

The BSP said this was a reversal of the $887 million in inflows in 2022 coursed through the BSP-authorized agent banks.

The net outflows last year reflected the $205 million in outflows for December, also a reversal of the $673 million inflows in November.

For 2023, foreign investments grew to an aggregate of $12.9 billion, up by 4.4 percent compared to the level in 2022.

Capital flight

Net outflows in equities last year reached $1 billion, in contrast to the $179 million net inflows in 2022.

Equities accounted for 57.3 percent of all foreign investments. Investors mostly placed funds in banking, property, holding firms and food, beverage and tobacco industries.

Meanwhile, foreign investments in peso-denominated government securities comprised 42.7 percent and posted a higher net inflows of $781 million compared to $694 million two years ago.

The top investor countries were the UK, US, Singapore, Luxembourg and Japan.

Gross outflows reached $13.1 billion or 14.6 percent higher year-on-year. Its bulk represented capital repatriation, while the remaining 4.9 percent accounted for the remittance of earnings. The US was the top destination of outflows.