MANILA, Philippines - A drop in gold holdings brought the country's gross international reserves (GIR) slightly lower at $83.38 billion in April, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Tuesday.
GIR, which serves as cushion against external shocks, dipped 0.6 percent from $83.951 billion at the end of the previous month, preliminary data showed.
The central bank has forecast the GIR will reach $86 billion by the end of this year.
Despite the decrease, reserves remain "adequate" to cover 11.8 months worth of imports of goods and services, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco, Jr. said in a statement.
They are also equivalent to 9.8 times the country's short-term foreign liabilities based on original maturity and 6.3 times based on residual maturity.
"The decline in the reserves level was due mainly to revaluation adjustments on the BSP's gold holdings arising from the decrease in the price of gold in the international market," Tetangco explained.
Payments made to the government's maturing obligations and withdrawals by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. also contributed to the drop.
The value of gold in BSP's reserves went down 8.89 percent in April to $9.021 billion from $9.901 billion a month ago, figures showed.
The metal's price in the world market has plummeted despite the weakness of the global economy.
Gold, which is the usual safe haven for investors during times of uncertainty, sold at $1,395 per ounce last April 15 from a record of $1,920 in September 2011.
At the same time, the World Gold Council has noted that so far this year, the BSP made zero gold purchase from small-scale miners. Tetangco has acknowledged the drop caused mainly by the government's imposition of taxes on gold sales.
"These outflows were partially offset by inflows from the foreign exchange operations and income from investments abroad of the BSP as well as foreign currency deposits by NG," Tetangco pointed out.
BSP's foreign exchange holdings- a pool of major currencies- rose 32.47 percent month-on-month to $1.251 billion in April, data showed.
Meanwhile, reserves invested abroad- which accounted for the bulk of the GIR- inched down to $71.322 billion from $71.325 billion during the same period.