File photo: CGTN

MANILA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- More money flowed out of the Philippines in January, the Philippine central bank said on Thursday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or the Central Bank of the Philippines said transactions on BSP-registered foreign portfolio investments for January this year yielded net outflows of 486 million U.S. dollars resulting from the 1.7 billion U.S. dollars outflows and 1.2 billion U.S. dollars inflows for the month.

"This is higher compared to the 321 million U.S. dollars recorded net outflows in December 2019," the BSP said in a statement.

The BSP said the 1.2 billion U.S. dollars registered investments reflected a 10.9 percent increase from the 1.1 billion U.S. dollars figure in December 2019.

About 65.9 percent of investments registered during the month were in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities while the remaining 34.1 percent balance went to investments in peso-dominated government securities.

According to the BSP, the Britain, the United States, Singapore, Luxembourg, and China's Hong Kong were the top five investors for the month, with combined share to total at 79 percent.

The BSP said outflows for January 2020 were 20 percent higher compared to the 1.4 billion U.S. dollars recorded for December 2019. The United States received 62.1 percent of total outflows.

In contrast, the BSP said net inflows of 763 million U.S. dollars were recorded for the same period a year ago.