The Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) reached $111.08 billion in November 2025, on the back of significant increase in the value of its gold holdings, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said over the weekend.
The GIR level surpassed the $110.25 billion recorded in October, representing a new one-year high, although it remained below the all-time high of $112.71 billion reached in September 2024.
Preliminary data from the BSP indicated that gold holdings climbed 6.72 percent to $18.03 billion from $16.89 billion in October.
The BSP said the current GIR level provides a robust liquidity buffer against external shocks. It is equivalent to 7.4 months of the country’s imports of goods, service payments and primary income.
Conventionally, reserves are considered adequate if they can finance at least three months of imports. The reserves also cover about 3.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.
Meanwhile, other components of the reserves saw minor changes. Foreign investments slightly dropped 0.32 percent, from $88.09 billion to $87.81 billion.
The country’s foreign exchange holdings also decreased by 4.94 percent to $603.8 million from $635.2 million in October.
The reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose 0.01 percent to $728.3 million, with special drawing rights (SDRs) amounting to $3.91 billion in November.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort largely attributed the overall growth to the record value of gold holdings amid high global gold prices.
Ricafort said the GIR increase was “again largely due to the latest month-on-month increase in gold holdings by $1.135 billion or 6.7 percent to a new record high of $18.026 billion as world gold prices gained by 5.9 percent month-on-month in November 2025.”
The prices were near the new record high of $4,381.52 per ounce reached on Oct. 20, 2025.
Ricafort said with the current pace of GIR growth, a new record could be breached soon.
