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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider PH reserves dip below $100B in February

PH reserves dip below $100B in February

Published Mar 8, 2023 01:53 pm

Philippines’ US dollar stock dropped to $99.31 billion as of end-February from $100.66 billion in January, based on the latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) preliminary data.

The gross international reserves (GIR), composed of foreign investments, gold reserves, and other foreign assets, was also lower compared to same period in 2022 of $107.8 billion.

The GIR was below $100 billion for six months last year but BSP’s US dollar buying which started in October 2022 increased it back to $100.66 billion in the first month of 2023.

The BSP said the current GIR level is still “more than adequate external liquidity buffer” and is equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also about 6.1 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity, said the BSP.

Meanwhile, the $1.35 billion decrease in the GIR in February from January was partly due to government’s payment of past loans.

“The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures,” said the BSP.

Another reason for the decline was the downward adjustments in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings because of the lower price of gold in the global market.

Aside from foreign investments and gold reserves, BSP’s reserve assets also consist of foreign exchange, reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and special drawing rights.

The BSP-managed foreign investments amounted to $84.55 billion end-February from $84.15 in January. It was however lower compared to same period in 2022 of $92.89 billion.

Gold reserves decreased to $9.33 billion last month from $9.79 billion in January and $9.58 billion same time in 2022.

The BSP’s reserve position in the IMF and SDRs stood at $785 million and $3.8 billion, respectively, compared to the previous year’s $798 million and $3.92 billion.

After selling US dollars to support the depreciating peso in the second half of 2022, the GIR lost $14.7 billion. The BSP was able to replenish the US dollar stock again after it hit a low of $93 billion in September last year.

The peso weakened to a record low of P59 vis-à-vis the US dollar on Sept. 29 and was poised to break past P60 in October but the BSP’s active participation in the spot market prevented the exchange rate from breaching the psychological level.

In 2022, the GIR ended with $96.15 billion. For this year, the BSP expects the GIR to settle at $100 billion.

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