The Philippines posted a balance of payments (BOP) surplus of $1.2 billion in March 2024, bringing the tally in the first quarter to a positive position.
“The BOP surplus in March 2024 reflected inflows arising mainly from the national government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and net income from the BSP’s investments abroad,” the BSP said in a statement Friday.
It said the BOP surplus in March also brought the year-to-date BOP level to $238-million surplus, lower than the $3.5-billion surplus recorded in the same period last year.
Preliminary data from the BSP showed that the cumulative surplus in three months reflected mainly the improvement in the balance of trade alongside the net inflows from personal remittances, net foreign borrowings by the national government, foreign direct investments and foreign portfolio investments.
The BOP position also reflected an increase in the gross international reserves (GIR) level to $104.1 billion as of end-March 2024 from $102.0 billion as of end-February.
“The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.7 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” the BSP said.
It was also about 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity, it said.
The BSP earlier raised the projected 2024 BOP surplus to $700 million on positive inflows of remittances, outsourcing revenues and tourism receipts.
The actual surplus reached $3.7 billion in 2023, a reversal of the $7.3-billion deficit in 2022.
The BSP also expects a lower current account deficit of $6.1 billion this year, compared to the previous forecast of $9.5 billion. In 2023, the actual current account deficit reached $11.2 billion, lower than $18.3 billion in 2022.
