MANILA, (PNA)—The country’s gross international reserves reached USD 80.57 billion in November this year, a little lower than the previous month’s USD 81.1 billion but higher than year-ago’s USD 78.7 billion, data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) show.
The decline was traced to the revaluation of the central bank’s gold holdings in line with the drop of prices of the said precious metal in the international market as well as payments by the government of its maturing foreign debts.
The central bank’s 2015 GIR assumption is USD 81.6 billion.
BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., in a statement, said the current foreign reserves of the country remained huge as it was enough to cover 10.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income.
It is also equivalent to six times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.2 times based on residual maturity, which the central bank defines as the “outstanding external debt with original maturity of one year or less, plus principal payments on medium- and long-term loans of the public and private sectors falling due within the next 12 months.”
During the same period, the country’s net international reserves (NIR) amounted to USD 80.56 billion, USD 52 million lower than the previous month’s USD 81.08 billion.