The surplus in the country’s balance of payments (BOP) fell to just $582 million in August from $2.72 billion in the same month last year as servicing of foreign debts fueled the outflow of dollars from the country.
The latest BOP surplus in August was also significantly down from the $3.18 billion recorded the previous month.
The data were provided by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which said payments of foreign currency-denominated debts accounted for a significant portion of outflows of foreign currencies.
Despite the drop in the BOP surplus, officials said the country’s external liquidity remained comfortable as the cumulative surplus for the first eight months of the year stood at $5.08 billion.
This was actually down from the $9 billion registered in the same period last year, but the BSP said this was already double the $2.6-billion projected BOP surplus for 2012.