July GIR at $76.89b, down from June’s $77.53n

August 7, 2018

Preliminary data showed that  gross international reserves (GIR) level stood at $76.89 billion as of end-July 2018, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor  Espenilla, Jr. announced Tuesday.

This was lower than the $77.53 billion level in June 2018 due mainly to outflows arising from the payments made by the national government for its maturing foreign exchange obligations, foreign exchange operations of the BSP, and revaluation adjustments on the BSP's gold holdings resulting from the decrease in the price of gold in the international market.

These were partially tempered by the national government's net foreign currency deposits as well as the BSP's income from its investments abroad.

The end-July 2018 level of GIR remains as an adequate external liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.4 months' worth of imports of goods, and payments of services and primary income. It is also equivalent to 6.1 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity.

Net international reserves (NIR), which refer to the difference between the BSP's GIR and total short-term liabilities, likewise decreased by $0.63 billion to $76.89 billion as of end-July 2018, from the end-June 2018 level of $77.52 billion. DMS