The country’s gross international reserves rose $0.74 billion to $87.61 billion at the end of February from $86.87 billion in January, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.
BSP said in a statement the increase in reserves “reflected inflows arising from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits and BSP’s net foreign exchange operations.”
“These inflows were partly offset, however, by payments made by the government for servicing its foreign currency debt obligations,” it added.
The GIR at this level can cover 7.7 months’ worth of imports of goods and services and payments of primary income. It is also equivalent to 5.4 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity.
Net international reserves, which refer to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, also increased $0.74 billion to $87.6 billion at the end of February $86.86 billion in January.