Foreign reserves climb to highest in 13 months

December 8, 2025 | 12:00am

Higher gold holdings push GIR to $111.07 billion in November

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s dollar reserves rose for a second straight month in November, reaching their highest level in more than a year on the back of stronger gold holdings, preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed.

The BSP said gross international reserves increased to $111.07 billion as of end-November, from $110.25 billion a month ago. This marked the highest level in 13 months or since the $111.08 billion GIR recorded in October 2024.

GIR is the sum of all foreign exchange flowing into a country. The reserve buffer provides assurance that the country can meet foreign obligations, finance imports and mitigate external shocks.

RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort attributed the month-on-month increase largely to higher BSP gold holdings, which climbed by 6.7 percent to a new record of $18.03 billion as global gold prices rose by 5.9 percent in November.

Year-on-year, GIR was higher by 2.42 percent as Ricafort noted that reserves have been “recovering higher from one-year lows in earlier months of 2025,” amid US President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs that led to market volatilities worldwide.

However, foreign investments registered with the BSP dipped to $87.81 billion as of end-November from $88.09 billion a month ago. It was also 3.8 percent lower than the $91.3 billion a year earlier.

Foreign exchange declined by 4.9 percent to $603.8 million in November from $635.2 million in October. It also fell by 65 percent from $1.73 billion a year ago.

Ricafort pointed to the peso’s volatility, with the currency hitting a new intraday record of 59.26 against the dollar on Oct. 29 before easing to around 58.935.

He noted that “the BSP intervened in the foreign exchange market in recent weeks. It was in small amounts, some day-to-day intervention just to limit the volatility.”

Ricafort said the country’s GIR level is more than adequate against external risks, which allows the BSP to intervene “more forcefully during periods of extended peso weakness.”

Against this backdrop, he underscored that a relatively high GIR would help support the peso exchange rate against any speculative attacks.

At this level, the GIR is equivalent to 7.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, and covers about 3.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.

By convention, 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.

It is also considered adequate if it provides at least 100 percent cover for the payment of the country’s foreign liabilities, public and private, falling due within the immediate 12-month period.