BOP deficit hits 17-month high in July
The Philippines’s balance of payments (BOP) deficit recorded a 17-month high of $1.82 billion in July, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
In a statement, the central bank said that this “reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government’s foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures.”
The BOP is the difference in total values between payments into and out of the country over a certain period. A deficit means that more dollars flowed out to pay for the importation of goods, services and capital than what came in from exports, remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), business process outsourcing (BPO) earnings and tourism receipts.
With the huge shortfalls in the past three months, the country’s cumulative BOP deficit almost from $1.3 billion ihn January to July last year to $4.92 billion this 2022.
“Based on preliminary data, the cumulative BOP deficit reflected the widening trade in goods deficit,” the BSP said.
Earlier, the Monetary Board raised its BOP deficit forecast to $6.3 billion or 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) for this year but retained it at $2.6 billion or 0.6% of GDP for next year in view of the recent buildup in external economic risks.
