PH reserves steady at $101.3 B in May

The Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) stood at $101.296 billion as of end-may, slightly lower than the previous month’s $101.760 billion, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data. The country’s US dollar stock is also lower compared to same time last year of $103.646 billion. The BSP said Wednesday, June 7, that the slight month-on-month GIR decline was because of the National Government’s (NG) withdrawals of foreign currency deposits with the BSP to pay for maturing foreign currency debt. The NG also took out funds from the BSP to pay for “various expenditures” that the BSP did not disclose. In addition, the “downward adjustments in the value of the BSP’S gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market” also contributed to the decrease in the GIR level as of end-may. At $101.296 billion, the BSP said this was still adequate reserves. “The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.6 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.moreover, it is also about 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.2 times based on residual maturity,” said the BSP. Meanwhile, the net international reserves which refers to the difference between the BSP’S reserve assets or GIR, and reserve liabilities or the short-term foreign debt, credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also decreased as of end-may to a similar amount. The GIR includes foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the IMF, and special drawing rights (SDRS). SDRS are IMF assets and not its currency and mostly available in US dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound and the Chinese Yuan. As of end-may, the Bsp-managed foreign investments totaled $85.415 billion while gold holdings was at $10.208 billion. (Lee C. Chipongian)