Philippines foreign reserves hit new all-time high $109.8B

The Philippines’ foreign currency reserves have continued to build up and hit a new all-time high as of end-December 2020, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.

Data released by the BSP showed the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) level stood at $109.8 billion, higher by $4.98 billion from end-November 2020 level of $104.82 billion.

“The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected inflows mainly from the BSP’s foreign exchange operations, National Government’s (NG) foreign currency deposits with the BSP of proceeds from its issuance of ROP Global Bonds, and revaluation gains from the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market,” the central bank said.

“These inflows were partly offset, however, by the NG’s payments of its foreign currency debt obligations,” it said.

The end-December 2020 foreign reserves level represents an “adequate external liquidity buffer,”the BSP said, as such level can help cushion the domestic economy against external shocks.

Such a liquidity buffer is equivalent to 11.7 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, according to the central bank.

“It is also about 9.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.5 times based on residual maturity,” the BSP said.

Similarly, the net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, increased by $5 billion to $109.8 billion as of end-December 2020 from the end-November 2020 level of $104.8 billion. -NB, GMA News