BSP: Foreign exchange reserves to reach record $94B in end-2020

The Philippines' foreign exchange reserves are expected to reach a record-high of $94 billion this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Wednesday.

In a briefing, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the gross international reserves (GIR) has continued to climb from the $89 billion as of end-March.

"It's now I think $90 billion and we have revised our end of the year forecast for the GIR. It will be something like $94 billion, highest ever, so those are some numbers that we have updated," he said during the Lido virtual roundtable.

The GIR -- a measure of a country’s ability to settle import payments and service foreign debt -- came in at $88.99 billion as of end-March, so far the highest on record.

At this level, the GIR can cover 7.9 months' worth of imports of goods and services and payments of primary income.

It is also equivalent to 5.3 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity. —KBK, GMA News