The gross international reserves ended 2015 at $80.61 billion, up from $79.5 billion in 2014, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Thursday.
Data showed the $80.61-billion foreign reserves in December increased from $80.17 billion in November, but fell short of the year-end target of $80.7 billion.
Bangko Sentral said the month-on-month increase in reserves was due to “the government’s 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 national government for maturing foreign exchange obligations.
“The end-December GIR level remains ample as it can cover 10.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income. It is also equivalent to 5.5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4 times based on residual maturity,” Bangko Sentral said.