GIR hits $81.336 B in February

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s foreign exchange reserves went up for the third consecutive month in February, reflecting the ability of the government to comfortably pay for its imports and service its debts, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

The country’s gross international reserves amounted to $81.336 billion in February, up from the revised $80.716 billion in January.

“The increase in reserves was due mainly to the government’s net foreign currency deposits and the BSP’s foreign exchange operations and income from investments abroad,” the central bank said.

These inflows were partly offset by revaluation adjustments on the BSP’s gold holdings due to the decline in the price of gold in international markets.

At the same time, payments made by the government for maturing foreign debt contributed to outflows during the month.

The February GIR level is enough to cover 10.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income.

The BSP also said the latest figure should be equivalent to 8.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and six times based on residual maturity.

Meanwhile, net international reserves or GIR less the short-term debts climbed to $81.3 billion in February from $80.7 billion in January.

The Philippines recorded a GIR of $79.54 billion in end-2014, within the BSP’s estimate of a $79 billion to $80 billion range during the period.