Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) slightly rose to $107.98 billion as of end-February from $107.69 billion in January, according to the central bank.
Compared to same period in 2021 of $105.16 billion, the GIR increased by $2.82 billion this year.

Preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that the latest GIR level is still “more than adequate external liquidity buffer” and is equivalent to 10.2 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. The current level is also about 8.4 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.8 times based on residual maturity.
“The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the upward adjustment in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market and the BSP’s net income from its investments abroad,” said the BSP.
The net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets in the GIR and reserve liabilities or short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), stood at $107.97 billion end February.
The BSP’s reserve assets are composed of foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the IMF, and special drawing rights (SDR).
In February, BSP-managed foreign investments amounted to $93.10 billion while gold reserves totalled $9.58 billion. The SDR portion of the GIR is steady and will not change at $3.93 billion.
This year, the BSP expects the GIR to increase to $112 billion.