GIR level stands at $14.5 B

The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) stood at $14.5 billion as of Oct. 25, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Rafael B. Buenaventura.

Buenaventura denied reports that the GIR had dropped to $13 billion due to the BSP’s intermittent intermention in the Philippine Dealing System (PDS) which has not stopped the peso from crashing below the P50 to $1 level and is now headed toward the P52 to $1 level.

Buenaventura assured that while the BSP has provided liquidity to the foreign exchange market from time to time, it has also been able to buy dollars to replenish its reserves.

The BSP has been particularly cautious about unloading its reserves to the forex market as it is an established fact in all currency markets that fighting speculators using a country’s reserves has always resulted in failure on the government’s part.

The BSP had hoped, before the currency crisis, to have a GIR level of $17 billion by the end of this year. But this figure has been revised downward to $16 billion.

But at the rate the peso is plunging, the BSP will be lucky to have its present $14.5-billion GIR level by the end of the year.