PH gross international reserves at $112.4-B as of end-Oct

Four thousand U.S. dollars are counted out by a banker counting currency at a bank in Westminster, Colorado November 3, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said preliminary data showed that the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) settled at $112.43 billion as of the end of October this year.

Data released by the BSP late Thursday showed that last month’s GIR was slightly lower than the end-September level of $112.71 billion.

International reserves, also referred to as GIR, are foreign assets of the BSP held mostly as investments in foreign-issued securities, monetary gold, and foreign exchange.

READ: GIR hits record-high $112B

“The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government’s net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures,” the BSP said.

It added that the net international reserves, or the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets (GIR) and reserve liabilities (short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund), slightly declined to $112.39 billion as of end-October from the end-September level of $112.67 billion.

The BSP, however, noted that the latest GIR level represents a more-than-adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 8.1 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

“Moreover, it is also about 4.5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity,” it added.

By convention, the GIR is viewed to be adequate if it can finance at least three months’ worth of the country’s imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. (PNA)