Forex reserves hit $80.18 B in Jan

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s gross international reserves went up in January from end-2014 level, driven by an upward adjustment in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ gold holdings, government’s foreign currency deposits and foreign exchange inflows.

Central bank data showed the country’s GIR amounted to $80.18 billion last month, higher than the revised $79.54 billion in December last year.

“The increase in reserves was due mainly to the government’s net foreign currency deposits, revaluation adjustments on the BSP’s gold holdings and foreign currency-denominated reserves, and income from its investments abroad,” the BSP said.

These were partly counterbalanced by payments made by the government for its maturing foreign exchange-denominated obligations, the central bank said.

The GIR reflects a country’s ability to pay for imports of goods and services and to service foreign debt.

The latest figure is enough to cover 10.3 months’ worth of the imports of goods and payments of services and income.

Moreover, this is also equivalent to 8.3 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.7 times based on residual maturity.

BSP data also showed net international reserves of GIR less the short-term debts also rose to $80.18 billion as of end-January, up from the $79.54 billion in December.

Last year, the $79.54-billion figure in end-2014 was within the central bank’s estimate of a $79-billion to $80-billion reserves during the period.

In 2013, foreign exchange reserves summed up to $83.187 billion, slightly below the $83.572 billion in 2012.