The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported the country’s balance of payments (BOP) surplus of $4.774 billion for the January to August period, lower than same time last year of $5.529 billion.

For the month of August only, BOP was in excess of $657 million from $8 million in July. It is also higher than the August 2019 surplus of $493 million.

“The BOP surplus in August reflected mainly the inflows from the BSP’s foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad,” said the BSP.

The BSP also said that the $4.774 billion surplus came mostly from government foreign borrowings and the lower net deficit in merchandise trade. “These outcomes offset fully the impact of higher net outflows of foreign portfolio investments, and lower net inflows from foreign direct investments, trade in services, and personal remittances,” it added.

The central bank also reported a final gross international reserves of $98.95 billion as of end-August which is “more than adequate external liquidity buffer” that can “cushion the domestic economy against external shocks.”

The current GIR is equivalent to 9.8 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, and nine times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.4 times based on residual maturity.

The BSP announced a preliminary GIR number on September 16.

With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting economic activity both globally and locally, the BSP has reduced its BOP projection for 2020 to $600 million surplus from its previous $2.9 billion surplus estimate. The current BOP surplus projection is 0.2 percent of GDP. The BSP said the lower BOP surplus estimate was based on the anticipated lower overall foreign exchange inflows from both the current and financial accounts.