PH gross int’l reserves slumped to $98.2Bn in Feb
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) level dipped from US$100.7 billion in January to US$98.2 billion last month.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the decline could be attributed to the government’s withdrawals of its deposits with the central bank to pay its foreign currency-denominated liabilities and the downward adjustments of the BSP’s gold holdings.
Despite the decline, the BSP said that the country’s GIR level represents a “more than adequate external liquidity buffer” equivalent to 7.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The level is also about 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.9 times based on residual maturity.
However, several economic managers said that keeping “hefty” reserves would allow the country to respond timely to external events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
International reserves are external assets — such as foreign currencies or gold — readily available to and controlled by a country’s monetary authorities. They can be used to directly finance international payments and imbalances to affect the exchange rate of the country’s currency.
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