November gross international reserves fall to two-year low

December 7, 2017

Gross international reserves fell to its lowest in two years, preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas revealed Thursday.

In a statement, BSP Officer-in_Charge Chuchi Fonacier said gross international reserves stood at $80.3 billion as of November. It was the lowest since November 2015 data of $80.173 billion.

The reasons were outflows arising from the payments made by national government for its maturing foreign exchange obligations as well as revaluation adjustments on gold holdings resulting from the decrease in the price of gold, the BSP said.

This was partly offset by net foreign currency deposits of the national government and income from the BSP investments abroad, the central bank added.

The central bank said the November 2017 gross international reserves "remains adequate as it can cover 8.4 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is equivalent to 5.4 times of the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity." DMS