BOP surplus narrows to $40M on debt payments

The country’s balance of payments surplus dropped to $40 million in August from $53 million a year earlier after the government paid maturing foreign obligations, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday. Still, the central bank is on track to achieve a full-year payments surplus of $3.7 billion, said BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. Central bank records showed that the payments surplus widened to $3.478 billion in the first eight months of the year from $2.775 billion in the January-August period last year. “The balance of payments [BOP] is relatively low for August as inflows from the BSP’s income and foreign exchange operations were offset by significant payments by the national government of its maturing foreign exchange obligations," Tetangco said in a text message to reporters. “Inflows from portfolio investments, remittances, and export receipts for the balance of the year are likely to result in continued surplus in the external position," he added. —JE/VS, GMANews