BOP back to deficit in Jan on debt payments | Inquirer Business
REVERSAL FROM DEC

BOP back to deficit in Jan on debt payments

By: - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ
/ 04:40 AM February 21, 2022

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Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. (File photo / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Settlement of foreign debts at the start of this year swung the Philippines’ balance of payments (BOP) position to a deficit of $102 million in January.

The latest BSP data released on Friday night showed that the January BOP deficit reversed the $991-million surplus in December 2021. But compared to a year ago, last month’s gap was narrower than the $752-million deficit in January 2021.

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The BOP deficit, which meant more US dollars left than entered the economy last month, “reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government’s payments of its foreign-currency debt obligations,” the BSP said in a statement.

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The deficit also reflected the decline in gross international reserves (GIR) to $107.69 billion in January from $108.79 in end-2021, the BSP said.

While the country’s dollar stash dropped, the BSP said it remained a “more-than-adequate external liquidity buffer.”

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The January GIR can cover goods imports as well as primary income and services payments for 10.2 months, the BSP noted.

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The latest dollar reserves level was also 8.4 times bigger than the country’s short-term foreign debt based on original maturity, and 5.7 times larger than external debt based on residual maturity, the BSP added.

The Philippines ended 2021 with a full-year BOP surplus amounting to $1.34 billion, down from the record $16.02 billion in 2020 when imports paid in dollars slid due to weak domestic consumption as a result of the pandemic-induced recession and the most stringent lockdowns imposed at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.  INQ

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TAGS: balance of payments (BOP), BSP, Business

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