THE country’s gross international reserves decreased $0.38 billion to $81.35 billion at the end of September this year from $81.73 billion a month ago, pulled down mainly by the government’s settlement of maturing foreign exchange obligations, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.
Other reasons for the decline were the outflows due to the revaluation adjustments on Bangko Sentral’s gold holdings resulting from the decrease in the price of the precious metal in the world market and foreign exchange operations.
They were partially offset by net foreign currency deposits by the national government and income from Bangko Sentral’s investments abroad.
“The end-September GIR level can adequately cover 8.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also equivalent to 5.5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.6 times based on residual maturity,” it said.