GIR level up for fifth straight month to reach $83.2 billion

April 5, 2019

Preliminary data shows that gross international reserves (GIR) rose to $83.2 billion as of end-March from $82.78 billion as of end-February, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Benjamin Diokno announced Friday.

The GIR level rose due mainly to inflows arising from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits, BSP’s foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad.

However, the increase in reserves was tempered partially by payments made by the national government for servicing its foreign exchange obligations as well as revaluation losses from the BSP’s gold holdings, resulting from the decrease in the price of gold in the international market.

The end-March level of GIR serves as an ample external liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

It is also equivalent to 5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.4 times based on residual maturity.

Net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, increased by $0.42 billion to $83.19 billion as of end-March from the end-February level of $82.77 billion. DMS