Record surge in August pushes 8-month BOP surplus to $9B

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the balance of payments (BOP) surplus for the first eight months of the year reached $9 billion, largely due to the record BOP excess in August. The BOP, a key measure of the Philippine economy’s ability to do business with the rest of the world, surpassed the BSP's full-year forecast. The country's growing BOP surplus has pushed the Philippines' total foreign currency reserves to a record-high of $75.6 billion as of August. According to the BSP, the BOP surplus in August was $2.719 billion, the highest in eight months. In comparison, the BOP surplus in August 2010 was only $151 million and $3.9 billion in December last year. For the whole of 2010, the Philippines had a record BOP surplus of $14.4 billion. That figure is only $5.4 billion away from the total BOP surplus of $9 billion as of August this year. More surpluses are expected as the peak season (October to December) approaches. During this season, foreign exchange earnings, including remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and the dollar earnings of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, usually reach year-high levels. The January to August 2011 BOP surplus follows a gross international reserves of $75.559 billion. The BSP attributes the record-high international reserves to the following: