The country’s gross international reserves declined 0.4 percent in October to $85.753 billion from a record $86.139 billion in September, after the government settled maturing foreign exchange obligations, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Monday.
Bangko Sentral said other reasons behind the decline were the revaluation adjustments on gold holdings resulting from the decrease in the price of the precious metal in the world market and foreign exchange operations of the bank.
“These were partially offset by the reclassification of renminbi-denominated accounts from non-reserve to reserve eligible assets and the national government’s net foreign currency deposits, along with BSP income from investments abroad,” the regulator said.
The Monetary Board approved the inclusion of the Chinese renminbi in the official international reserves of Bangko Sentral effective Oct. 13, 2016 to ensure the availability of the said currency to the banking system and consider rising economic and financial importance of China.
The end-October reserves level could cover 10 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income. It was also equivalent to 6.1 times the country’s short-term external debt.