The Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) or United States (US) dollar stock declined further to $104.6 billion, or ₱5.96 trillion, as of end-April, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported.

This level decreased by $2.1 billion, or 1.5 percent, from March’s $106.7 billion, mainly due to the Marcos administration’s withdrawal of dollar deposits with the central bank to service foreign debt and cover other expenditures, alongside the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations.

GIR refers to the BSP’s reserve assets, which include foreign investments, gold, foreign currency, a reserve position in the Washington-based multilateral lender International Monetary Fund (IMF), and special drawing rights (SDR).

Despite the decline, the latest GIR level still offers a “robust” external liquidity buffer, enough to cover 7.2 months of imports and payments for services and income. This coverage also weakened from the previous month’s 7.3-month period.

Likewise, the present GIR level is sufficient to cover short-term foreign debt by 3.6 times, based on residual maturity, reflecting the country’s financial stability.

Short-term debt based on residual maturity includes foreign debt originally due within a year, along with upcoming principal payments on medium- and long-term loans owed by both the public and private sectors within the next year.

GIR is generally considered sufficient if it can cover at least three months’ worth of the country’s imports, service payments, and primary income obligations.

The BSP said that the decline in GIR on a monthly basis was driven by the Marcos administration’s withdrawal of dollar funds from its account with the central bank to repay its foreign debts, and “pay for its various expenditures.”

This came alongside the central bank’s net foreign exchange operations, which increased the drawdown from the dollar reserves to $648.6 million from $525.6 million in March.

Foreign investments continued dropping by 3.2 percent to $86.09 billion from $88.92 billion as of end-March. Gold reserves, meanwhile, further increased by 4.6 percent to $13.34 billion, from $$12.76 billion the previous month.

Net international reserves (NIR)—the difference between GIR and foreign reserve liabilities—further fell by $2 billion to $104.6 billion at the end of April, down from $106.6 billion in March.