Philippines' foreign reserves hit $110.9B in 2025

The Philippines closed 2025 with a foreign liquidity buffer of over $100 billion, still near the record high last seen in September 2024, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

The country’s gross international reserves (GIR)—a measure of the ability to settle import payments and settle foreign debt—stood at $110.872 billion as of end-December 2025, lower than the $111.253 billion as of end-November 2025.

“The monthly decrease in the GIR is again largely due to the latest month-on-month decline in foreign investments, by $966 million, or 1.1%, to $87 billion, but positively offset by the continued month-on-month increase in gold holdings by $552 million, or 3.1%, to a new record high of $18.577 billion as world gold prices gained by 1.9% month-on-month in December 2025, when it posted a new record high of $4,549.92 per ounce on December 26, 2025,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said in an emailed commentary.

Year-on-year, the 2025 GIR level was higher than 2024’s $106.256 billion foreign reserves level.

The BSP said that the latest GIR level provides a “robust external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.4 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.”

According to the central bank, GIR, by convention, is viewed to be adequate if it can finance at least three months’ worth of the country’s imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. 

“The latest GIR level ensures availability of foreign exchange to meet balance of payments financing needs, such as for payment of imports and debt service, in extreme conditions when there are no export earnings or foreign loans,” it said.

The BSP said that the end-2025 GIR level covers about 4.0 times the country's short-term external debt based on residual maturity.

Short-term debt based on residual maturity refers to outstanding external debt with an original maturity of one year or less, plus principal payments on medium- and long-term loans of the public and private sectors falling due within the next 12 months.

Moreover, the level of GIR as of a particular period is considered adequate if it provides at least 100% cover for the payment of the country’s foreign liabilities, public and private, falling due within the immediate 12-month period.

The GIR is made up of foreign-denominated securities, foreign exchange, and other assets, including gold. It also helps a country finance its imports and foreign debt obligations, stabilize its currency, and provide a buffer against external economic shocks.

Ricafort said the end-December 2025 GIR was “near the record high of $112.707 billion posted in September 2024.”

The economist added that the foreign reserves level at 7.4 months’ worth of imports was “more than twice the international standard of three to four months and sustained well above the $100-billion mark, thereby strengthening the country’s external position that is positive for sustaining the country’s favorable credit ratings of one to three notches above investment grade.”

“More importantly, relatively higher GIR to provide greater cushion/buffer/support for the peso exchange rate versus the US dollar, as fundamentally supported by the continued growth in the country’s structural US dollar inflows, especially from OFW remittances, BPO revenues, tourism receipts, foreign investments, among others,” Ricafort said. —VBL, GMA Integrated News