The Philippines posted a balance of payments (BOP) surplus of $3.5 billion in September 2024, a turnaround from the $414-million deficit in the same month last year.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed the surplus was driven by increased foreign currency deposits by the government and higher income from the BSP’s foreign investments.
This brought the nine-month BOP level to $5.1-billion surplus, higher than the $1.7-billion surplus recorded a year ago.
Based on preliminary data, the cumulative BOP surplus reflected mainly the narrowing trade in goods deficit alongside the continued net inflows from personal remittances, trade in services, and net foreign borrowings by the national government.
Net foreign direct and portfolio investments contributed to the BOP surplus.
The BOP position reflected an increase in the final gross international reserves (GIR) level to $112.7 billion as of end-September 2024 from $107.9 billion as of end-August.
The latest GIR level represented a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 8.1 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It was also about 4.5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.
The BSP’s policy-setting Monetary Board earlier released its 2024-2025 BOP outlook showing a higher forecasted surplus this year to $2.3 billion, or 0.5 percent of the gross domestic product, from the earlier estimate of $1.6 billion or 0.3 percent of GDP.
The BSP expects the GIR to reach $106 billion in 2024 and $107 billion in 2025.
It also anticipated the current account to post a deficit of $6.8 billion in 2024 and a deficit of $5.5 billion in 2025 on reduced growth forecasts for goods and services exports.
