Preliminary data shows that the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) rose by $0.43 billion to $85.61 billion as of end-August 2019 from $85.18 billion as of end-July 2019.
This was announced by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno today last week.
The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflects the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits and BSP’s income from its investments abroad.
However, the increase in reserves was partially tempered by payments made by the NG for servicing its foreign exchange obligations.
The end-August 2019 level of GIR serves as an ample external liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It is also equivalent to 5.2 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity. 2
Net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, likewise increased by $0.43 billion to $85.6 billion as of end-August 2019 from the end-July 2019 level of $85.17 billion.
