GIR slips to $16.88B as of June

The country's gross international reserves (GIR) slipped by 1.19 percent to $16.884 billion at end-June, from $17.088 billion in May as government paid some of its maturing debts.

Comprised mostly of US dollars, the GIR is the total foreign currency holding of the central bank, including gold and special drawing rights, the currency used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Data from the BSP indicated that government had in reserve about $2.626 billion worth of gold, $3.83 million worth of SDRs, $13.487.87 billion worth of foreign investments and $651.23 million worth of foreign exchange.

The country's reserves peaked in March at $17.359 billion after the government booked the proceeds from the flotation of some $1-billion worth of bonds, with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) as global coordinator. The issue had J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank as lead arrangers.

The recently-concluded issuance of the BSP's $500 million worth of bonds will not be reflected until September when the government draws down the proceeds to pre-pay a $750-million loan that the government borrowed last year.

The BSP's net international reserves, on the other hand, went down to $13.484 billion from $13.712 billion in May.

The current level of reserves adequately covers about five months worth of imports of goods and payment of services and income.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that exports for May rose by 12.2 percent to $2.917 billion from $2.6 billion in the same period last year. In the first five months of the year, shipments of locally-made goods rose by 2.7 percent to $13.77 billion from $13.41 billion a year ago.

Government economists said exports for the whole of 2002 were likely to grow four percent from a year ago with an expected recovery in the US economy.

Using other reserve coverage measures, the central bank said the level of reserves was 3.2 times the amount of the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity.

The country's total reserves, mostly in US dollars, are way above this year's full-year projection of $14 billion to $15 billion.

The BSP said the country's reserves would continue to improve along with the improvement in the country's economic outlook that even credit rating agencies have started to take note of.