Philippines foreign reserves hit record $112 billion

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said preliminary data showed that the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) reached an all-time high of USD112 billion as of end-September this year, according to a report by Philippine News Agency.

Data released by the BSP on Monday showed that the GIR in August this year was at USD107.9 billion.

International reserves, technically referred to as GIR, are foreign assets of the BSP held mostly as investments in foreign-issued securities, monetary gold, and foreign exchange.

The BSP said the month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits with the BSP, which include proceeds from the NG issuance of Republic of the Philippines Global Bonds, upward valuation adjustments in the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market, and net income from the BSP’s investments abroad.

The BSP added the net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets (GIR) and reserve liabilities (short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund), also increased to USD112 billion as of end-September 2024 from the end-August 2024 level of USD107.8 billion.

"The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 8.1 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income," the central bank said.

"Moreover, it is also about 6.3 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.4 times based on residual maturity," it added.

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.