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Government loans bring BOP surplus to $1.66B in April
By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS, GMA News The Philippine balance of payment (BOP) position posted a higher surplus in April due to higher loan proceeds of the national government during the period, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported Thursday.
Data released by the central bank showed that the BOP position registered a $1.666-billion surplus in April.
This is higher than the $467-million surplus the same month last year, and the $448-million surplus in March.
The BOP consists of Philippine transactions with the rest of the world during a specific period. A surplus means more funds entered the country, while a deficit means more funds went out.
"The BOP surplus in April 2020 reflected mainly the inflows arising from the National Government’s deposit with the BSP of its foreign loan proceeds as well as the BSP’s foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad," the central bank said in an accompanying statement.
"These inflows were partially offset, however, by the foreign currency withdrawals made by the National Government to pay its foreign currency debt obligations during the month in review," it added.
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The latest figures brought the cumulative BOP position to a surplus of $1.6 billion in the first four months of the year, reversing the $68-million deficit in the first quarter.
This was, however, lower than the $4.27-billion surplus in January to March 2019.
"This development may be attributed partly to the reversal of foreign portfolio investments to net outflows in January-April from net inflows and lower net inflows of foreign direct investments in January-February compared to the previous year's level," said the BSP.
"The foreign portfolio investment outflows and lower foreign direct investments inflows were mitigated by the lower merchandise trade deficit and higher remittances from overseas Filipinos in January-March," it added.
According to the BSP, the BOP position reflects an all-time high final gross international reserves (GIR) level of $90.94 billion as of end-April.
This is equivalent to 8 months' worth of imports of goods and services and payments of primary income, and about 5.5 times the country's external debt based on original maturity and four times based on residual maturity.—AOL, GMA News