THE country’s balance of payments surplus in September declined 47 percent to $117 million from $219 million a year ago, as the highly-anticipated interest rates hike by the US Federal Reserve triggered volatility in the global financial markets.
The September surplus was also 83-percent lower than the $682-million surplus in the month of August. The figure brought the BoP surplus in the first nine months to $1.648 billion, lower than $1.808 billion a year ago.
“September was particularly a challenging month because people thought that the US Fed would adjust monetary policy, so there was a lot of uncertainty and the global financial markets proved to be more volatile,” Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said at the sidelines of an event Wednesday.
Despite the lower surplus in September, Guinigundo remained optimistic the $2-billion surplus target could still be achieved.
