Bango Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that foreign portfolio investment has recorded a net inflow in February. This has reversed the previous month's trend when there was a net outflow of US$117 million. In Feb 2006, foreign portfolio investments resulted in a net inflow of US$515.3 million. The new inflow is attributed to new registered investments, which increased to US$755.7 million, and offset the capital repatriations/outflows of US$240.4 million. For the Jan-Feb 2006 period, foreign portfolio investment recorded a net inflow of US$398.3 million. Investor sentiment generally remained positive in February, with investments in both PSE-listed securities and in peso-denominated government securities recoding net inflows.

The central bank said that various factors contributed to the positive investor sentiments, including the implementation of the VAT rate increase from 10% to 12%, successful IPO offering of First Gen Corporation and the country's credit rating upgrade by Standard & Poor's and Fitch. During the first two months of the year, registered foreign portfolio investments stood at US$986.1 million. The U.S., U.K. and Singapore together accounted for 64% of the new registered investments during the first two months of this year.