Gross international reserves dip to $76B

Written by : Raffy Ayeng
Manila Times

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Thursday that the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) climb to $76 billion at the end of May this year.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco said that the figure was lower by $500 million compared to the end-April 2012 level of $76.5 billion.

Tetangco said that the end-May 2012 GIR could adequately cover 11.4 months worth of imports of goods and payments of services.

It is also equivalent to 10.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity, and 6.6 times based on residual maturity.

The slight decline in end-May 2012 GIR level resulted mainly from disbursements arising from payments by the government for its maturing foreign exchange obligations as well as revaluation losses on BSP’s gold holdings from the decline in the price of gold in the international market.

Tetangco further stressed that these outflows were partially offset by inflows from foreign exchange operations and income from investments abroad of the BSP, as well as foreign currency deposits by authorized agent banks.

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