PH dollar reserves rise to 28-month high
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:18:18 +0000
THE Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) rose to a 28-month high of $82.896 billion in February, a development the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) attributed to its foreign exchange operations and investment income plus foreign currency deposits by the government.
The figure — the largest since October 2016’s $85.105 billion — was also 0.49 percent and 3.06 percent higher, respectively, from January and a year ago, preliminary data released on Thursday showed.
The month-on-month increase due “mainly to inflows arising from the BSP’s foreign exchange operations, net foreign currency deposits by the national government, and the BSP’s income from its investments abroad,” the central bank said in a statement.
These were partially tempered by national government payments for foreign exchange obligations as well as revaluation losses from the BSP’s gold holdings as global prices of the metal fell.
The latest reserve level was enough to cover 7.3 months worth of imports, the same buffer as in January but lower than the 7.5 months posted a year earlier. It was also equivalent to 6.3 times the country’s short-term external obligations due within one year and 4.1 times based on residual maturity.
Net international reserves, which refer to the difference between GIR and total short-term liabilities, increased to $82.89 billion compared to $82.48 billion a month earlier.
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