PHL posts narrower foreign reserves at $301M, says BSP

Payment of maturing foreign exchange debts and revaluation losses from a dip in the price of gold in the world market were the key factors in the $301 million decline in the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) that ended 19 months of expansion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday. The GIR stood at $75.639 billion as of Sept. 30 and sufficient to provide 11.1 months of import cover, a key indicator of the economy’s capacity to meet short-term international obligations. “It was also equivalent to 10.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 6.3 times based on residual maturity," BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said in a statement. BSP data showed that partly reversing the effect of the outflows was a 36 percent jump in earnings from foreign exchange operations, which reached $466.28 million in September from $342.82 million in August. Income from BSP investments abroad and the foreign currency deposits of proceeds from a program loan from the Asian Development Bank also helped to keep the GIR above $75 billion — BSP’s latest revised GIR forecast. — ELR/VS, GMA News