THE COUNTRY’S reserves rose at the close of 2015 on the back of higher income realized by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) from its investments, among others, but still fell short of the regulator’s yearend projection.
The BSP yesterday said in a statement that the Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR) stood at $80.614 billion at end-December, higher than the downward-revised $80.173 billion recorded as of November’s close.
This is also better than the $79.54 billion in reserves logged at end-2014.
However, the end-2015 GIR figure was a shade lower than the BSP’s downward-revised projection of $80.7 billion in gross reserves at yearend.
The GIR is composed of central bank assets held in different currencies, gold and special drawing rights (SDR), as well as foreign exchange deposits of the government and state-run firms and income from its overseas investments. It indicates a country’s capability to pay for imports and service foreign debts.
The central bank said the improvement in reserves was “due mainly to the national government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits as well as the BSP’s foreign exchange operations and its income from investments abroad.”
“These inflows were partially offset by payments made by the NG for its maturing foreign exchange obligations,” the BSP added.
The end-2015 GIR level remains “ample,” the central bank said, as it can cover 10.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income.
The reserves are also equivalent to 5.5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity, and four times based on residual maturity, the BSP said.
The BSP considers reserves adequate if the level can finance three months’ worth of imports or cover 100% of the country’s foreign liabilities.
Central bank data showed that income from foreign investments went up to $71.723 billion at the year’s close from $70.752 billion at end-November. This was also higher than the $69.96 billion recorded at end-2014.
Reserve positions in the fund also ticked up to $438.6 million from $434.9 million at end-November. However, this was less than the $570.6 million seen the year prior.
Gold holdings also crawled higher to $6.702 billion from $6.7 billion the month previous, but stayed below the $7.483 billion recorded at end-2014.
On the other hand, the BSP’s foreign exchange stock declined to $588.1 million from $1.124 billion the month prior, but was higher than end-2014’s $300.2 million.
SDRs were flat at $1.161 billion at end-December from the November level. However, the end-2015 total was lower than the $1.226 billion seen twelve months prior.
source: Businessworld
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