Hot money inflows to Philippines hit $1.48bn

Foreign portfolio inflows to the Philippines for the first two months of the year jumped to 1.48 billion U.S. dollars, nearly half of the 3 billion U.S. dollars projected for 2013, the central bank said Friday. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said net inflows as of February were more than five-fold the previous year's 280.71 million U.S. dollars. The central bank attributed the increase in inflows to " encouraging news on corporate earnings" that drove more investments to the equity markets. Portfolio investments, better known as "hot money" are usually placed on the bond and stock markets. Investments were mainly sourced from the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Singapore. The United States was the top destination for outflows.