The Philippines’ gross international reserves rose to $99.7 billion as of end-July 2023 from $99.4 billion in June, driven by the higher value of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ gold holdings and net income from investments overseas.
The BSP said in a statement Tuesday the GIR level represented a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It was also about 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity.
“The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the upward valuation adjustments in the value of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market, the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations, net income from the BSP’s investments abroad, and the national government’s net foreign currency deposits with the BSP,” it said.