The country’s gross international reserves declined to $99.8 billion as of end-August 2023 from $100 billion in July as the government settled some of its foreign debt, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Thursday.
It said the latest 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 decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government’s payments of its foreign currency debt obligations and the downward adjustments in the value of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market,” the BSP said.
Net international reserves, which refer to the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets and reserve liabilities, fell by $100 million to $99.8 billion as of end-August from the end-July level of $99.9 billion. The BSP earlier retained the GIR forecasts at $100 billion in 2023 and $102 billion in 2024.