BSP ups forecast on forex reserves to record $75 B

The country’s foreign exchange reserves will reach new record levels in the $74-billion to $75-billion range by yearend, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Tuesday. Portfolio investments and dollar earnings of the tourism sector, business process outsourcing firms and overseas Filipinos are expected to boost the foreign reserves. As of end-July, the gross international reserves (GIR) stood at a record P71.887 billion. The BSP’s original GIR forecast for the year was $63 billion before revising it upward to $70 billion. Remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as of June 30 totaled $9.635 billion, $573 million more than the $9.062 billion a year earlier. For all of 2010, OFW money transfers totaled $18.76 billion. Remittances usually surge the most in the last quarter. Despite the civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, the adverse impact of Saudi Arabia’s "Saudization" program and the European debt crisis, OFW remittances hit a new monthly record of $1.737 billion last June. — ELR/VS, GMA News