Euro crisis fears slash BOP surplus by 21% despite Q3 42% gain

The country’s balance of payments (BOP) surplus from January to November this year was $2.789 billion smaller than the $13.082 billion posted same time frame in 2010, top Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials said on Monday.   Eleven months of BOP surplus this year fell by 21 percent and totaled only $10.293 billion—just enough to exceed the BSP’s revised full-year target of $10 billion.    By quarter, the BSP said there was a 42.3 percent increase to $4.7 billion in the July-September span compared to the $3.3 billion of the same period last year.   The BOP position is the difference between foreign exchange inflows and outflows. It also sums up the country’s transactions with the rest of the world.   "For November, $364 million surplus was recorded due mainly to foreign curency deposits by authorized agent banks and the national government. We also received investment income from investments abroad and of course in our foreign exchange operations," BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said.   "They were partly offset by debt payments. What also provided support to external payments surplus was the fact remittances from overseas Filipinos continued to be resilient," Guinigundo added.   Director Rosabel Guerrero of the BSP's Department of Economic Statistics said gross international reserves (GIR) posted another record high of $76.35 billion as of end-November on the strength of earnings from the central bank’s investments abroad, foreign exchange operations, and gold holdings revaluation. — ELR, GMA News