The country’s gross international reserves level slipped to $106.08 billion as of end-June 2021 from $107.25 billion in May, on lower value of gold holdings and government’s payment of foreign debt, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas said Tuesday.
“The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level was mainly attributed to the downward adjustment in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market, foreign currency withdrawals of the national government from its deposits with the BSP to pay its foreign currency debt obligations and various expenditures, and BSP’s foreign exchange operations,” the BSP said.
“These were partly offset, however, by the inflows from the BSP’s income from its investments abroad,” it said.
It said the latest GIR level continued to represent adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 12.1 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also about 7.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.2 times based on residual maturity.
The GIR ended 2020 at a record $110 billion. This year, the BSP expects GIR to settle at $115 billion, before rising further to $117 billion next year.