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The country’s US dollar reserves dropped to a nine-month low of $103.021 billion at the end of January, based on the latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data.
Technically referred to as gross international reserves (GIR), the current GIR level is the lowest since April 2024's $102.647 billion.
The reserves are also lower than the end-December 2024 level of $106.256 billion, or down by $3.609 billion. Compared to January 2024's $103.269 billion, the current GIR are lower by $248 million.
The month-on-month decline in the GIR level was due to the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations, and the drawdown on the government’s deposits with the central bank to pay off its maturing foreign debt.
The BSP said the latest GIR level is still “more than adequate external liquidity buffer."
GIR are a buffer fund for the payment of both public and private foreign liabilities that are maturing within the immediate 12-month period.
At the current level, these reserves are equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, and about 3.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.
Meanwhile, net international reserves (NIR) totaled $102.996 billion in January, down by $3.238 billion from end-December last year's $106.234 billion. NIR are the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets or GIR, and reserve liabilities or the short-term foreign debt, credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The BSP’s reserve assets are composed of foreign investments, gold holdings, foreign exchange holdings, reserve position in the IMF, and special drawing rights (SDRs) of the IMF.
As of end-January this year, the BSP’s foreign investments amounted to $86.132 billion, down from $89.476 billion in December 2024 and $87.278 billion in January last year.
Gold reserves totaled $11.751 billion last month, higher than the previous month’s $11.005 billion and a year ago's $10.299 billion.
The central bank registered foreign exchange holdings of $733 million during the period, lower compared to December 2024’s $1.366 billion and from $1.162 billion same time last year.
The country’s reserve position in the IMF and SDRs reached $671 million and $3.732 billion, respectively, compared to the previous year’s $754 million and $3.776 billion.
The BSP is projecting that GIR will likely end at $110 billion this year. The country’s dollar sources come from foreign exchange inflows, such as from remittances, foreign direct investments, and earnings from the business process outsourcing and tourism sectors.
GIR reached a record high of $112.706 billion in September 2024, surpassing the previous high of $108.794 billion in 2021.
