PH keeps balance of payments in the black

The entire Philippine economy narrowly averted spending more dollars than it made in September thanks to foreign currency deposits of the national government and income from the central bank’s investments overseas, according to official data released on Friday, Oct. 18.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the country’s overall balance of payments position posted a surplus of $38 million in September 2019 — the smallest surplus on record this year, apart from the single $404-million deficit recorded in June.

Nonetheless, last month’s balance of payments position — the net tally of dollar flows due to the transactions of the country’s public and private sectors for investments, goods and services with the rest of the world — was still significantly better than the $2.7-billion deficit recorded in the same month last year.

More importantly, however, the country’s cumulative balance of payments position for the Jan-Sept 2019 posted showed surplus of $5.57 billion, marking a complete a turnaround from the $5.14-billion deficit recorded in the first three quarters of 2018.

“The surplus may be attributed partly to personal remittance inflows from overseas Filipinos and net inflows of foreign direct investments,” the central bank said.

BSP planners expect the country’s overall a balance of payments to end 2019 with a surplus of $3.7 billion compared to the $2.3-billion deficit of the previous year./TSB