PH forex reserves dipped to $106.8B in April

The Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) decreased slightly to $106.8 billion as of the end of April from $107.3 billion a month earlier, preliminary data at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) show.

Still, the BSP said its reserve assets—comprising foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the International Monetary Fund, and special drawing rights—represented a more than adequate external liquidity buffer.

The latest GIR level is equivalent to 9.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. Such reserves are considered adequate if they can cover at least three-months’ worth.

Also, end-April GIR was about 7.2 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.5 times based on residual maturity.

“The month-on-month [April over March] decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government’s (NG) foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP as the NG settled its foreign currency debt obligations and paid for various expenditures as well as the downward adjustment in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market,” the regulator said.

Similarly, the BSP said the net international reserves decreased to $106.7 billion at the end of April from $107.3 billion at the end of March.

According to the Bureau of the Treasury, the NG’s debt stock hit P12.68 trillion as of end-March, increasing by P586.29 billion or 4.8 percent during that month primarily due to the net issuance of government securities to both local and external lenders.

Of the total debt stock, 30 percent was sourced externally while 70 percent were domestic borrowings.

The government’s domestic obligations reached P8.87 trillion, with an additional 5.4 percent or P455.45 billion incurred in March.

The government’s foreign debt stock reached P3.81 trillion, with an additional 3.6-percent P130.84-billion inflow. INQ