THE country’s gross international reserves rose $0.43 billion to $85.61 billion as of end August 2019 from $85.18 billion as of end July 2019, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said Friday.
Diokno said in a statement the month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected the government’s net foreign currency deposits and BSP’s income from its investments abroad.
“However, the increase in reserves was partially tempered by payments
made by the national government for servicing its foreign exchange obligations,” he said.
“The end-August 2019 level of GIR serves as an ample external liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also equivalent to 5.2 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity,” he said.
Net international reserves also increased by $0.43 billion to $85.6 billion as of end-August 2019 from the end-July 2019 level of $85.17 billion.