PHL payments surplus widens to record $13.17B

(Updated 9:05 p.m.) The country's balance of payments (BOP) surplus widened to a record $13.17 billion in the first 11 months of the year, fed by foreign portfolio and capital investments. Data released by the central bank Monday showed the BOP position as of end-November was $7.972 billion wider than the $5.206 billion booked a year earlier. In November alone, the surplus was $3.9 billion which reversed the BOP deficit of $93 million in the same month last year. The BOP is the difference between the inflow and outflow of foreign exchange for a particular period reflecting a country’s transactions with the rest of the world. BSP Deputy Gov. Diwa Guinigundo said the payments surplus as of last month came largely from a recovery in the export sector, remittances from overseas Filipinos, revenues of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, and tourism receipts. The central bank said the wider payments surplus in November also came from the higher BSP earnings. The BOP surplus from January-November already outpaced the revised target of $8.2 billion. The central bank originally expected the surplus to hit $3.2 billion this year, a mark that was breached in June. Reviewing forecast for 2011 In 2009, the payments surplus reached $6.421 billion, more than 72 times wider from $89 million in 2008. According to Guinigundo, monetary authorities are now reviewing their forecast for the country's external payments position next year. "We are still running our numbers because we have to adjust our targets for 2011 although the increase is not going to be as high as this year. We did not expect the improvement to be that strong this year," he said. Money sent home by Filipinos abroad hit a new monthly record of $1.673 billion in October, bringing to $15.456-billion the total in the first 10 months. On the other hand, the country's gross international reserves (GIR) — the sum of all foreign exchange flowing into the country — widened 39 percent to hit a record $61.3 billion in January-November from $44.17 billion in the same period last year. The central bank's revised GIR whole year target of $60 billion for 2010 was already breached. The country's foreign portfolio investments or "hot money" also hit a record $4.18 billion as of end-November, or 10 times more than the $431.4 million booked in the same period last year. — JE/VS, GMANews.TV