The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported the preliminary gross international reserves (GIR) reaching $101.51 billion in April this year, marginally lower than March level of $101.55 billion.
This much foreign currency-denominated assets of the BSP represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equal to 7.6 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. This is also 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity.
According to the BSP, the slightly lower GIR level in April reflect mainly the national government’s (NG) payments of its foreign currency debt obligations.
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)), fell to only $101.47 billion as of end-April 2023 from the end-March 2023 level of $101.51 billion.
