The country’s balance of payments (BOP) stood as a deficit of US$298 million in May, reversing the US$2 billion surplus recorded in the same month last year, according to data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The May shortfall was primarily driven by foreign currency withdrawals by the national government from its deposits with the BSP to service external debt obligations.
As a result, the year-to-date BOP position deteriorated significantly, swinging to a US$5.8 billion deficit from a US$1.6 billion surplus in the January–May period last year. The BSP attributed the continued decline mainly to the country’s widening trade in goods deficit, which reached US$15.91 billion from January to April 2025, based on preliminary figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
However, this was partly cushioned by steady inflows from overseas Filipino remittances, foreign borrowings, and portfolio investments.
The BOP performance mirrored a slight dip in gross international reserves (GIR), which edged down from US$105.3 billion in April to US$105.2 billion in May 2025. Despite this marginal decline, the BSP said the current GIR level remains robust andsufficient to cover 7.1 months of imports and 3.3 times the country’s short-term external debt.
The BOP and GIR serve as indicators of the country’s external sector resilience and capacity to weather global financial shocks.
