The Philippines posted a balance of payments (BOP) surplus of $359 million in August 2025, reversing the $167-million deficit in July and the $88-million surplus in the same month last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said over the weekend.
The BSP said the surplus was due to its net income from international investments, which helped narrow the country’s eight-month BOP deficit to $5.4 billion from $5.8 billion in the first seven months of 2025.
The eight-month shortfall was still led by the continued trade-in-goods deficit, which stood at $28.5 billion from January to July, according to preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
“This was partly offset by the sustained net inflows from personal remittances from overseas Filipinos, foreign borrowings by the national government, foreign direct and portfolio investments and trade in services,” the BSP said.
The BOP position also mirrored a rise in gross international reserves (GIR), which climbed to $107.1 billion at the end of August from $105.4 billion in July.
The BSP said the GIR level remains an adequate external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.2 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It also covers about 3.7 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.
 recorded a $359 million surplus in August, reversing a deficit and narrowing the year-to-date shortfall, the BSP said.){kind=link}