PHL Q1 payments surplus widens 174% to $3.5B

The Philippine’s balance of payments (BOP) surplus widened 174 percent to $3.493 billion during the first quarter, from $1.276 billion a year earlier, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Tuesday. The central bank’s earnings from investments abroad and foreign exchange operations, as well as remittances by overseas Filipino workers helped boost the country’s payments surplus — the difference between foreign exchange inflows and outflows from transactions with the rest of the world. The BSP policy-setting Monetary Board sees the payments surplus widening to $6.7 billion this year, after surging 124.3 percent to a record $14.4 billion last year from $6.42 billion in 2009. — VS, GMA News