PH dollar reserves hit 20-mth high in Jan
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:10:41 +0000
THE Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) rose to a 20-month high of $82.132 billion in January, a development the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) traced to its foreign exchange operations and investment income, foreign currency deposits by the government and higher gold prices.
The figure is 3.7 percent up from December and the $81.224 billion recorded a year ago, BSP data released on Thursday showed, and is also the largest since May 2017’s $82.17 billion.
The month-on-month increase was said to be due “mainly to inflows arising from the net foreign currency deposits by the national government, BSP’s foreign exchange operations, revaluation gains from BSP’s gold holdings resulting from the increase in the price of gold in the international market, and the BSP’s income from its investments abroad.”
These were partially tempered by national government payments for foreign exchange obligations.
The latest reserve level is enough to cover 7.2 months worth of imports, up from December’s 7.0 months but lower than the 7.7 months posted a year earlier. It is also equivalent to 6.2 times the country’s short-term external obligations due within one year and 4.2 times based on residual maturity.
Net international reserves, which refer to the difference between GIR and total short-term liabilities, increased to $82.13 billion compared to $79.19 billion a month earlier.
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