The country's US dollar stock is back at the $108-billion level at end first quarter, based on data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
At end-March, the country's gross international reserves (GIR) reached $108.54 billion, higher by $740 million than $107.80 billion in February, and also up by $4.06 billion compared to $104.48 billion in the same period in 2021.
“The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the National Government’s net foreign currency deposits with the BSP, which include proceeds from its issuance of ROP Global Bonds, and the BSP’s net income from its investments abroad,” said the central bank.
The BSP also said the latest GIR level is “more than adequate external liquidity buffer” at 9.6 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. GIR is considered adequate if it can finance at least three-months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The country’s GIR is also 7.2 times the short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.4 times based on residual maturity.
The net international reserves or NIR, which refers to the difference between the GIR and reserve liabilities, meantime totalled $108.53 billion as of end-March from $107.79 billion in the previous month. Reserve liabilities are short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The BSP’s GIR or reserve assets are composed of foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the IMF, and special drawing rights or SDRs.
As of end-March, the BSP’s foreign investments dropped to $92.59 billion from $92.88 billion in February, while gold reserves also fell to $9.40 billion from $9.58 billion. BSP’s foreign exchange reserves in the GIR however increased to $1.83 billion versus February’s $604 million. The SDRs remained at $3.92 billion.
The Monetary Board last March 18, in reviewing the external accounts for this year, still expects GIR to stay at the $108-level by end-2022.
The BSP, meantime, revised lower the expected GIR for 2023 to $109 billion from its previous projection of $112 billion on account of the overall balance of payments (BOP) deficit and the higher current account shortfall which is a key component of the BOP.
The highest GIR level on record is $110.12 billion which was the tally in December 2020.
The BSP expects a BOP deficit of $4.3 billion for this year, reversing an earlier estimate of $700 million surplus, due to global uncertainties amid the Russia-Ukraine war and from the effect of higher import demand.
The current account is also expected to have a higher deficit this year of $16.3 billion versus an earlier projection of $9.9 billion because of the widening trade gap.