Overall BOP position posts surplus of $2.44b in December 2018: BSP 

January 18, 2019

The overall balance of payments (BOP) position yielded a surplus of $2.44 billion in December 2018, significantly higher than the $917 million surplus in the same month of the previous year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.

Inflows in December stemmed mainly from the BSP's foreign exchange operations, national government's net foreign currency deposits, and BSP's income from its investments abroad during the month.

These were partially offset, however, by payments made by the national government for its foreign exchange obligations. 

For 2018, full-year BOP position registered a higher deficit of $2.31 billion compared to the $863 million BOP deficit recorded in 2017. The higher cumulative BOP deficit for the period may be attributed partly to the widening merchandise trade deficit (based on the Philippine Statistics Authority's preliminary data) for the first eleven months of the year that was brought about by the sustained rise in imports of raw materials and intermediate goods as well as capital goods to support domestic economic expansion. 

The reported BOP position reflected the final gross international reserves (GIR) level of US$79.19 billion as of end-December 2018. At this level, the GIR represents a more than ample liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also equivalent to 6 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity. DMS