THE country’s dollar transactions with the rest of the world slumped back to deficit territory in November after its recovery to surplus in the previous month.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that the country’s overall balance of payments (BOP)—the data summary of all the country’s transactions with the rest of the world—hit a deficit of $123 million in November this year.
This is a reversal of the $1.14-billion surplus registered in October and the $1.43-billion surplus seen in November last year.
The BOP is usually considered an important economic indicator in an economy as it shows the level of earnings or expenses of the Philippines with its transactions with the world.
A deficit means that the country had more dollar expenditures than its dollar earnings during the period.
11-month BOP
Meanwhile, November’s deficit, however, was not enough to turn the tide for the country’s 11-month total BOP position. The country’s BOP remained in surplus in total for the first 11 months of the year at $353 million.
The January to November BOP surplus this year, however, pales in comparison with the $11.79-million surplus in the same months in 2020.
The BSP said the November deficit reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government’s (NG) foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP as the NG settled its foreign currency debt obligations and paid for various expenditures.
Earlier this month, the BSP revised its BOP projection to a surplus of $1.6 billion from the earlier $4.1-billion surplus. This means that the country must incur a BOP surplus of about $1.25 billion to reach this projection.
Monthly BOP surpluses have exceeded the $1-billion mark thrice for this year: when it hit $2.6 billion in surplus in April, $1.14 billion in October and $1.04 billion in August.