The Philippines posted $2.3 billion in balance of payments (BOP) deficit in November 2024, a significant increase from the $216-million shortfall recorded in the same month last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Thursday.
It said the BOP deficit in November reflected the national government’s net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures and the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations.
The BSP said despite the deficit in November, the cumulative BOP position registered a surplus of $2.1 billion from January to November 2024.
This level, however, was lower than the $3-billion surplus recorded from January to November 2023.
The BSP said the decline in the cumulative BOP surplus was due to lower net receipts from trade in services and net foreign borrowings by the government. This was partly muted by the continued net inflows from personal remittances as well as net foreign portfolio and direct investments.
The BOP position reflects a decrease in the final gross international reserves (GIR) level to $108.5 billion as of end-November 2024 from $111.1 billion as of end-October 2024.
The November GIR still represented 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 4.3 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.
