The country’s dollar reserves declined month-on-month and year-on-year in January as the government settled more foreign debt that month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.
Preliminary BSP data showed that gross international reserves (GIR) at end-January went down to $80.16 billion from $80.67 billion at end-December 2015.
Dollar reserves at the start of the year also slid from $80.72 billion in the same month last year.
“The decrease in reserves as of end-January 2016 was due mainly to foreign exchange outflows arising from payments by the national government for its maturing foreign exchange obligations and the BSP’s foreign exchange operations,” the BSP explained in a statement.
The drop in GIR was nonetheless “partially offset by inflows from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits and income from the BSP’s investments abroad, and by the revaluation adjustments on the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market,” it said.
The BSP added that the end-January GIR level “remains ample,” as such can cover 10.2 months’ worth of imports of goods as well as payments of income and services.
The GIR as of end-January were likewise equal to 5.5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity, as well as four times based on residual maturity, according to the BSP.
This year, an increase in the balance of payments or BOP surplus to $2.2 billion is seen resulting into a rise in the GIR level to $82.7 billion, equivalent to nine months of import cover.