RP forex reserves at $36.5B at end-March

MANILA, Philippines- The country's gross international reserves surged to $36.5 billion at the end of March, nearly at the full year target, due to the central bank's foreign exchange operations and income from abroad. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Friday said that only three months into 2008, the country's foreign reserves was already within half a billion dollar of the full-year projected level of $37 billion. The BSP said the March GIR rose by over $200 million last month from $36.287 billion at the end of February, setting yet another historic high that would boost the balance of payments (BOP) position. The BSP said the increase in the March GIR resulted from the BSP's net foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad. At this level, the GIR could adequately cover 6.2 months worth of import of goods and payments of services and income. This is a far cry from the crisis level of a little over $20 million in the early 1980s when foreign investments left the country and creditors refused to lend to the government. This is also equivalent to 3.2 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity. The central bank said strong foreign exchange inflows in March were only partly offset by payments of maturing obligations by the national government as well as the BSP. - GMANews.TV