MANILA, Jul 9 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) level, settled at 99.8 billion U.S. dollars as of end-June, from 100.6 billion dollars in May, according to the preliminary data, released by the Philippine central bank on Friday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said, the latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The BSP added, the June GIR level is about 5.7 times the country’s short-term external debt, based on original maturity and 4.1 times, based on residual maturity.
“The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government’s net foreign currency withdrawals, from its deposits with the BSP, to settle its foreign currency debt obligations, and pay for its various expenditures, and downward adjustments in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings, due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market,” the BSP said.– NNN-PNA
