April 2025 reserves at $105 billion

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the country's balance of payments (BOP) position continued to a post a deficit in April this year, but noted that gross international reserves (GIR) remain healthy, according to a report by Philippine News Agency.

In a statement Monday, the BSP said the country's BOP posted a deficit of USD2.6 billion, reflecting the national government’s (NG) drawdowns on its foreign currency deposits with the BSP to meet its external debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures, and the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations.

The BOP summarizes a country's economic transactions with the rest of the world for a specific period.

The overall position can be in surplus, deficit, or balance.

The deficit during the month brought the year-to-date deficit to USD5.5 billion, reflecting the widening of the trade deficit.

"This decline was partly muted, however, by the continued net inflows from personal remittances from overseas Filipinos and foreign borrowings by the NG," the BSP said.

The BOP position mirrored the decrease in the GIR to USD105.3 billion as of end-April 2025, down from USD106.7 billion as of end-March 2025.

The BSP, however, said that despite the decline, the latest GIR level provides a robust external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.3 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

"Additionally, it covers approximately 3.7 times the country's short-term external debt based on residual maturity," it said.

By standard, GIR is viewed to be adequate if it can finance at least three months' worth of the country's imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.