The country’s buffer against external sector stresses improved a bit in February, driven slightly higher by inflows from the central bank’s foreign-exchange operations and adjustments in the value of its gold holdings.
In a report on Monday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the gross international reserves (GIR) totaled $81.3 billion during the month.
This was $610 million more than GIR data in January, when it aggregated only $80.69 billion.
Compared to its year ago level, the country’s foreign-currency reserves also proved higher than reserves of only $80.84 billion at that time.
This was also the highest the foreign-currency reserves have been since December 2013 when this aggregated $83.19 billion.
The central bank attributed the reserves “mainly to revaluation adjustments on the BSP’s foreign currency-denominated reserves and gold holdings resulting from the increase in the price of gold in the international market.”
The net foreign-currency deposits by the national government (NG), as well as the BSP’s income from investments abroad, also played a part in the reserves level during the month.
The GIR could have been higher were it not partially offset by the BSP’s foreign-exchange operations and payments made by the NG on maturing foreign-exchange obligations.
The GIR serves as a cushion against imbalances that stem from external pressures and global developments. Gold reserves, special drawing rights, foreign investments and foreign-exchange reserves comprise the countries GIR.
An ample level of reserves means the country has capacity to pay its obligations and has enough buffer against risks to global imbalances.
Data from the central bank show the gold holdings of the central bank hit $7.8 billion in February, down from the $7.04 billion reported the previous month.
The foreign-exchange component of the reserves, meanwhile, improved to $1.47 billion, from only $825.9 million the previous month.
The BSP said the GIR should be enough to support 10.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income.
It should also equal 5.7 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity.