Gross international reserves up to $104-B in March

The BSP’s reserve assets consist of foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and special drawing rights. (File Photo By patrickroque01/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA – The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) went up to USD104 billion as of end-March this year, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

Preliminary data showed that the GIR level was higher than the USD102 billion month-on-month, according to the report released over the weekend.

The BSP’s reserve assets consist of foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and special drawing rights.

“The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), upward valuation adjustments in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market, and net income from the BSP’s investments abroad,” the BSP said.

The net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP reserve assets (GIR) and reserve liabilities (short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the IMF), also rose to USD103.8 billion as of end-March 2024 from the end-February level of USD102 billion.

“The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.

7 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” the BSP said.

It is also about 6.1 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity.

By convention, the 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.