The country’s balance of payments (BOP) stood as a deficit in February this year, wider than a year ago at $895 million from only $157 million.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the shortfall resulted from the net currency withdrawal of the national government from its deposits at the BSP to pay for maturing obligations and various expenses.
Essentially what is left after the country’s foreign currency expenses are deducted from its foreign currency earnings, the BOP in the first two months this year stood as a surplus of $2.2 billion.
“Based on preliminary data, the cumulative BOP surplus reflected inflows that stemmed mainly from the global bond issuance of the national government in January 2023, personal remittances, and foreign portfolio investments,” the BSP said.
The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) for the period, an indicator of capacity to pay for foreign loans and trade obligations, fell to only $98.2 billion as of February this year from $100.7 billion in January.
Nevertheless, the GIR rated an adequate external liquidity buffer by the monetary authorities equal to 7.4 months’ worth of imports and payments of services and primary income.
It is also 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.9 times on residual maturity, the BSP said.
