PHL surpasses 2015 BOP surplus target

MANILA — The Philippines breached its USD 1 billion balance of payment (BOP) surplus target for 2015 just in the second month of the year.

This, after it posted a surplus of USD 1.12 billion for the two-month period, a reversal from the USD 4.1 billion deficit during the same period in 2014.

The country’s BOP position was buoyed by the USD 985 million surplus last February, data released Thursday by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

The BOP surplus last February alone is higher compared to the previous month’s USD 136 million surplus and year-ago’s USD 345 million surplus.

BOP refers to the sum of a country’s total transaction with the rest of the world.

BSP officials expect the country’s BOP position this year to be lower than in the past years due mainly to the expected policy normalization in the US.