The country’s gross international reserves (GIR), based on preliminary data, settled at USD102.7 billion as of end-February 2024 from the end-January 2024 level of USD103.3 billion.
The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.7 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It is also about six times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.9 times based on residual maturity.
The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government’s payments of its foreign currency debt obligations.
Similarly, the net international reserves, or the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets (GIR) and reserve liabilities (short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), slightly decreased by USD0.02 billion to US$102.66 billion as of end-February 2024 from the end-January 2024 level of USD102.68 billion.
