Driven by record-high gold reserves and the central bank’s investment income, the Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR)—the country’s stock of United States (US) dollars and other foreign currencies—climbed to their highest level in a year, the strongest since October 2024.

Preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Tuesday, Oct. 7, showed that the country’s GIR expanded to $108.8 billion at end-September from the recovery level of $107.1 billion in the previous month.

This continued improvement from July was driven by “higher global gold prices, income from [the BSP’s] investments, and foreign currency deposits by the national government with the BSP,” according to the central bank.

Notably, gold reserves stood at $16.4 billion, continuing their upward momentum and reaching the highest level since 2000.

GIR includes the BSP’s reserve assets, such as foreign investments, gold, foreign currency, its reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and special drawing rights (SDR).

According to the BSP, the current reserve level is a “robust” external liquidity buffer. It is enough to cover 7.3 months’ worth of imports and payments for services and income.

GIR acts as a country’s backup fund to pay for imports and foreign debts, support the local currency, and protect against global economic shocks. The current GIR is also sufficient to cover short-term foreign debt by 3.6 times.

Net international reserves (NIR), the difference between GIR and foreign reserve liabilities, also increased by $1.7 billion to $108.8 billion at the end of September, up from $107.1 billion in the previous month.

John Paolo Rivera, senior research fellow at state policy think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said the GIR level could potentially exceed the record high $112.7 billion in September last year “especially if global gold prices remain elevated, foreign investment inflows improve, and the BSP continues to earn from its foreign assets.”

“However, this will also depend on external debt payments, currency volatility, and the need for BSP intervention in the forex market,” Rivera noted.

He said remittances and business process outsourcing (BPO) inflows could increase during the holiday season, helping increase the country’s foreign reserves in the coming months.

“With the holiday season boosting remittances and potentially stable market conditions, reserves may increase further in the coming months, barring major external shocks or heavy foreign exchange [forex] interventions,” he said.

For Jonathan Ravelas, senior adviser at Reyes Tacandong & Co., GIR could stay elevated in the coming months “if exports recover, tourism picks up, and foreign investments flow in, but risks remain from geopolitical tensions and rate shifts abroad. BSP will keep a close eye.”