February gross international reserves reach $80.6 billion

March 7, 2018

Foreign exchange reserves in February went down to $80.6 billion from the previous month's $81.2 billion due to outflows from foreign exchange operations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, debt payments by the national government and revaluation adjustments on the BSP's gold holdings.

In a statement on Tuesday, the central bank said the outflows were partially tempered by the national government's net foreign currency deposits (which include proceeds from the new money component of the Philippine Global Bonds issuance under the national government's liability management transactions) and income from the BSP's  foreign exchange operations.

The February reserves represents more than ample liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 8.2 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

It is also equivalent to 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.2 times based on residual maturity.

Net international reserves, which refer to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, decreased by $0.6 billion to $80.6 billion as of end-February 2018 from the end-January 2018  NIR of $81.2 billion. DMS