THE country’s overall balance of payments (BOP) position posted a surplus of $839 million in February, higher than the $467 million surplus recorded in the same month last year.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the surplus in February reflected mainly the inflows arising from the National Government’s foreign currency deposits with the BSP, and BSP’s foreign exchange operations as well as income from its investments abroad.
These inflows were partially offset, however, by the payments made by the National Government for servicing its foreign currency debt obligations during the month in review.
For the period January — February 2020, the cumulative BOP position registered a deficit of $516 million, a turnaround from the $3.17 billion BOP surplus recorded in the first two months of 2019.
BSP said the deficit may be attributed partly to merchandise trade deficit and net outflows of foreign portfolio investments based on the latest available data.
The BOP position reflects the final gross international reserves (GIR) level of $88.19 billion as of end-February.
BSP said this GIR level represents ample liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.8 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It is also equivalent to 5.1 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity.
