MANILA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- "Hot money," or foreign portfolio investments, continued to leave the Philippines in October, the country's central bank BSP said Thursday.

    The central bank posted a net foreign portfolio outflow of 390 million U.S. dollars in October 2008, up from the 312.2 million-dollar net outflow in September.

    "Risk aversion further intensified given the global financial crisis and slowdown in the U.S. (United States) and other major economies," BSP Governor Amando Tetangco said in a statement.

    "This development has resulted in the withdrawal of investments out of emerging markets for investment in the U.S., primarily in Treasury securities," he added.

    Hot money, or foreign fund vulnerable to shifts in sentiments and expectations, is invested in the money market, stocks and government securities.

    For the first 10 months of the year, transactions resulted in a net outflow of 911.5 million dollars, in sharp contrast to the nearly 3.7 billion-dollar net inflow for the comparable period in 2007.

    The year of 2008 has been characterized by investor risk aversion arising from heightened worries on the state of the global economy following the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the meltdown in major financial markets, said the central bank.

    By type of instrument, investments in listed shares and money market instruments posted net inflows of 1.9 billion dollars and 2.6 million dollars, respectively, while placements in peso-denominated government securities and peso bank deposits showed net outflows of 96.6 million dollars and 2.7 billion dollars, respectively.

    Gross investment inflows totaled 7.6 billion dollars during the period, a 43 percent decline from the 13.4 billion-dollar level recorded in the same period last year. The United Kingdom, Singapore and the United States remained the top three investor countries with their combined contribution of 69 percent of investment funds during the period.

    Gross capital outflows aggregated 8.5 billion dollars, a 13 percent drop from last year's over 9.7 billion dollars. These came from withdrawals of investments from listed shares, government securities and money market instruments and peso bank deposits.

    The central bank had earlier expected that the net foreign portfolio investments will fall to 700 million dollars this year from last year's 3.5 billion dollars.