Philippines' GIR rises to 89 bln USD in end-March

Source: Xinhua | 2020-05-01

The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) level rose by 0.81 billion U.S. dollars from the end-February 2020 level of 88.19 billion to 89 billion U.S. dollars as of end-March 2020, the country's central bank said on Thursday.

At this level, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement that the GIR can cover 7.9 months' worth of imports of goods and services and payments of primary income.

"It is also equivalent to 5.3 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity," the BSP added.

The BSP said the month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected inflows arising from the BSP's foreign exchange operations as well as income from its investments abroad, and the national government's foreign currency deposits with the BSP.

"These inflows were partly offset, however, by payments made by the national government for servicing its foreign currency debt obligations," the BSP added.

The BSP said net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP's GIR and total short-term liabilities, also increased by 0.81 billion U.S. dollars to 88.99 billion U.S. dollars as of end-March 2020 from the end-February 2020 level of 88.18 billion U.S. dollars.