The central bank’s foreign exchange interventions and the national government’s debt payments pulled down the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) to $103.0 billion as of end-January 2025 from $106.3 billion at end-2024.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement on Friday this marked the lowest level in nine months, or $102.647 billion in April 2024. It was also the fourth month of GIR declines, after a record-high $112.7 billion in September 2024.
Despite the decline, BSP said the latest level “represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.”
“Moreover, it is also about 3.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity,” the BSP statement added.
BSP said the decrease in the GIR level reflected “the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations and drawdown on the national government’s deposits with the BSP to pay off its foreign currency debt obligations.”
The net international reserves (NIR), or the difference between GIR and the BSP’s reserve liabilities, shrank by $3.238 billion to $102.996 by end-January from the end-December 2024 level of $106.234 billion.
NIR is inclusive of gold monetization and revaluation of reserve assets and reserve-related liabilties, which are excluded from the calculation of the balance of payments (BOP).
The BSP’s reserve assets include foreign investments, gold, foreign currencies, IMF reserve positions, and special drawing rights.
