The country’s gross international reserves (GIR), important in measuring a country’s capacity to pay external obligations, rose to USD106.9 billion as of end-August 2024, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
This compares from only USD106.7 billion at the end-July 2024 level of US$106.7 billion.
The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.9 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. Moreover, it is also 6.1 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity.
The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the net income from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) investments abroad.
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)), increased by USD0.2 billion to USD106.9 billion as of end-August 2024 from the end-July 2024 level of USD106.7 billion.
