GIR level up for sixth straight month to hit $83.96 billion as of April

May 7, 2019

Preliminary data shows gross international reserves (GIR) rose to $83.96 billion as of end-April from $83.61 billion as of end-March, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday.

The month-on-month increase in the GIR level was due mainly to inflows arising from the BSP's foreign exchange operations, national government's net foreign currency deposits and BSP's 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-April level of GIR serves as an ample external liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.4 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,'' the BSP said,

It is also equivalent to five times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.5 times based on residual maturity, the BSP added.

Net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP's GIR and total short-term liabilities, likewise increased by $0.34 billion to $83.94 billion as of end-April from the end-March level of $83.6 billion. DMS