PHL foreign reserves widen to $62.1B as of Dec. 2010

The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) widened by 40 percent to $62.1 billion as of December last year from $44.24 billion booked in the same period in 2009, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported Friday. "The appreciable year-on-year build-up in the reserves level was due to inflows from the BSP's foreign exchange operations, income from investments abroad, and revaluation gains on its gold and foreign currency-denominated holdings," BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said in a statement. Tetangco said that these inflows were partially offset by payments for maturing foreign exchange obligations of the government and the central bank and net foreign currency withdrawals by authorized agent banks and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. The BSP said the reserve assets accumulated over the 12-month period stemmed mainly from sustained foreign exchange inflows from merchandise exports, services receipts, overseas Filipinos' remittances, and direct and portfolio investments. "The preliminary end-December 2010 GIR climbed to a level that could cover 10.2 months worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income. It was also equivalent to 10.8 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.7 times based on residual maturity," the central bank noted. Net international reserves, which include revaluation of reserve assets and reserve-related liabilities, also rose to $62 billion as of end-December last year from $44.2 billion in the same period in 2009. — JE/OMG, GMANews.TV